


SPN Commentary 2015

by welkinalauda (iiii)



Series: Salvaged from Tumblr [7]
Category: Supernatural, Tumblr - Fandom
Genre: The Green Cooler - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2019-09-18 02:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16986717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/welkinalauda





	1. January

[1/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/106811470534/heartlighting-neven-ebrez-heartlighting) 

from the [Supernaturalwiki transcript](http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/6.11_Appointment_in_Samarra_\(Transcript\)): 

 

> DEATH I’m sorry, you assume that I don’t know where you’ve hidden it. Now we’ve established you have hubris but no leverage, what is it you want?
> 
> DEAN Lucifer’s cage. I figure you’re one of the few people that can actually jailbreak it.
> 
> DEATH Do you?
> 
> DEAN Sam’s soul is stuck in that box.
> 
> DEATH I’ve heard.
> 
> DEAN And our other brother is trapped in there, too. Michael rode him in.
> 
> DEATH Dean, quit shuffling and deal.
> 
> DEAN I want you to get ‘em both out.
> 
> DEATH Hmm. Pick one.
> 
> DEAN What?!
> 
> DEATH Sam’s soul or Adam’s.
> 
> DEAN But –
> 
> DEATH As a rule, I don’t bring people back. I might make an exception once, not twice. So…Pick.
> 
> DEAN Sam. 

Death asks what Dean wants, Dean says both brothers, Death says pick one.   _Death_  never actually said Adam was in the cage, he just didn’t contradict Dean.  Which could be because Death finds Dean annoying and doesn’t want to offer him a morsel of comfort.  

I went back to check 6x09 too, and the fairy’s trying to make a deal with Sam to get Sam’s soul loose, no mention of Adam on either side… but Sam wasn’t buying what the fairy was selling, and Sam started shooting before the fairy had a chance to sweeten the pot.  So we don’t really get a chance to find out what - if anything - the fairies know about the location of Adam’s soul.

Are there more instances where someone in a position to know says anything?  Because both of those strike me as something you could credibly argue either way.  

I can’t decide which side I want to be arguing.

On the one hand, I’d kind of like to stop feeling bad about that poor fictional character trapped in Hell with a couple of angry archangels.

On the other hand, abandoning Adam to Hell makes sense in character/story terms - it’s of a piece with abandoning Kevin to be hunted by demons and abandoning Claire to DCFS.  As in, they can’t save all the innocents, but really, there are some people to whom TFW owes a little more effort, and they still get written off with an angst-filled shrug.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 6x09 Clap Hands if You Believe](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x09-Clap-Hands-if-You-Believe) [#spn 6x11 Appointment in Samarra](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x11-Appointment-in-Samarra) [#spn 10x09 The Things We Left Behind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x09-The-Things-We-Left-Behind) [#Dean = Rincewind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-%3D-Rincewind) [#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location) [#Claire and Adam and Kevin](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Claire-and-Adam-and-Kevin) [#Lambs left to the wolves](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lambs-left-to-the-wolves)

 

* * *

 

[1/2/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/106982793689/yarnyfan-the-reason-i-cant-stand-and-then)

Oh, hell, yes.  The wrong codger walked out of that warehouse.  And Gwen - was she only ever meant to be a red herring?

Also annoying: that was the first time we ever saw Dean possessed.  Up til then he’d always been human-run - no angel, no demon ever got control of him, and the voices in his head were human voices (John, Bobby, Sam).  Plus, by that point Dean was the last major character left who  _hadn’t_  been possessed.  I kind of thought they were saving him for something, that there would be a point to his always having been alone in his own skin.  But, nope.  Whatever they might have built that into was thrown away on a Khan worm.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 6x16 ...And Then There Were None](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x16-...And-Then-There-Were-None) 

 

* * *

 

[1/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/107719215584/now-that-we-know-spn-fandom-exists-within-the) 

I propose that Sam and Dean were made flesh in the show-verse when an SPN fan with a tulpa symbol for an avatar posted the complete works of Carver Edlund to her livejournal.  The boys’ faces were a bit vague until a tumblr user with a tulpa symbol for an avatar got really insistent and persuasive about her ideas for fancasting the parts, and enough of the fandom said, ‘yeah, ok, Padalecki and Ackles do look good for it.’  Then AO3 redid their logo so, if you squint, you can see a slightly modified tulpa symbol on its side, and there went any internal consistency for the worldbuilding and 'how magic works’ stuff.  "Bloodlines" was a not-entirely-successful crossover fic.  Charlie is everyone’s favorite OFC, but the person who writes her keeps getting sidetracked with IRL stuff so we only get her stories a couple times a year.

[#Recursive fun!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Recursive-fun%21)[#It would explain away a lot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/It-would-explain-away-a-lot) 

 

* * *

 

[1/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/107821599064/rainbowshoelaceswag-bow-legged-from-here)

Another huge difference between “how this show is made” and a big budget film - big-budget films are temporary, pop-up productions.  They assemble a crew, the crew does their work, hopefully on schedule, and then they all scatter to the winds.  Series television, on the other hand, does the same thing every week.  And what SPN has been doing every week for the past ten years is scout, acquire, dress, use, and strike up to a dozen sets.*  I am baffled at the idea that SPN’s production design crews  _don’t_  have this down pat, and in a way that’s really impossible for a one-off film crew to replicate - no matter how big their budget.  

Also baffling: the idea that an eight-day/episode shooting schedule means that all the pre- and post-production work for that episode has been shoehorned into that eight days.  I mean, even on the fancy big-budget films, they do get the sets built and the wardrobe fitted before the actors come in and start filming, don’t they?

And a whole other shade of WTF: turns out symbolism is only possible if the entire body of work has a single author.  If there have been multiple showrunners, visual symbolism cannot exist, at all.  The part where the same guy has been in charge of production design for that whole ten years counts for shit, of course, because he’s not the  _auteur_.  He’s just some subordinate, who’s been throwing things randomly on the screen in his weekly panic to cram all of each episode’s production work into eight days… for ten years.  

 _______________________

>  *Maybe more, some weeks?  I haven’t made a real count.

[#I am really insulted on Jerry Wanek's behalf](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-am-really-insulted-on-Jerry-Wanek%27s-behalf)[#it's not like I even know the guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-not-like-I-even-know-the-guy)[#still pissed](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-pissed) 

 

* * *

 

[1/12/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/107956414539/filleretive-snip-if-anyone-knows-more-about)

I don’t think this is actually original with me, but I don’t know where I got from, so…

SPN has been using stars as a visual cue for heaven/angels for a while now.  

Stripes are meant to indicate Hell and demons, I think.  Not sure if they get there via stripes = wounds = torture, or if it’s about how prison uniforms used to be striped.  Either way, it balances the iconography.

Put them together, you’ve got the US flag.  And… that’s a big can of worms, as far as symbolism goes.  Everything from our beautiful lofty ideals of freedom and equality, to insisting every schoolchild pledge allegiance every morning, to the reality that this country began in invasion and genocide and was built by forced labor.  And always, always American exceptionalism, the conviction that we are special, different - that  **this**  is the New Jerusalem.

What exactly Jerry Wanek means by waving the flag around, that I don’t know.

[#Your flag decal won't get you into Heaven any more](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Your-flag-decal-won%27t-get-you-into-Heaven-any-more) [#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#now I've got warrant stuck in my head](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/now-I%27ve-got-warrant-stuck-in-my-head) [#this is bad](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-bad)

 

* * *

[1/12/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/107969567929/i-cant-wait-for-season-yolo)

I’d like to see them really kick over the traces and write one of the leads into a stable romantic relationship.  Not a we-are-setting-up-to-off-his-truluv relationship, either, but a they-both-survive-the-season-with-bonus-bickering-about-dishes relationship.  I think the gang at SPN is way too conventional and hidebound to even give it a try, but it’d be nice.

 

* * *

 

[1/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/108140745509/i-always-follow-the-parallels-too-far)  **I always follow the parallels too far**

The supernatural creature who stalked, possessed and brought about the death of Dean’s Daddy, and did it because he was on a mission from his god?  Dean shot him between the eyes with a magic gun.

After Daddy was gone, Dean latched on remora-like to a surrogate parent who provided kindness and caring and also weapons and orders to use them.  The supernatural creature that caused the death of pseudo-Daddy?  Dean decapitated him with a magic blade of bone.

Dean : Azazel : Dick :: Claire : Castiel : Dean.

I know Crowley’s holding Dean’s magic blade of bone.  Where is the Colt these days?  

So, spinoff idea!  In the bridge episode, Claire kills Castiel, then Dean, and finds she’s taken their place as chief pawn in the game of multidimensional chess between Metatron and Crowley.  Our long-lost cambion Jesse Turner returns because [reasons] to be her super-friend and take the side of humans against angels, demons, monsters - all comers, really.  In the last scene we find out that Jesse’s created a trousers-of-time sort of deal, so TFW is still alive and fighting in one leg, and Claire, Jesse, and [motley crew of telegenic youngsters chosen by CW casting] are chasing down the other.  HIJINKS ENSUE.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#parallels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/parallels) [#spn spinoff idea](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-spinoff-idea)

 

* * *

 

[1/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/108505125999/im-confused-if-cas-had-jimmy-novaks-wallet-all)

About Castiel’s employment at the Gas ‘n’ Sip - 

This is one of those places where show-verse has nothing to do with reality.  To get a job legally in the US, you need - at bare minimum - photo ID and a matching social security number.  Which are certainly fake-able, but getting an SSN that’ll pass a background check requires fishing in a different pool than the Winchester Fake ID Machine usually trawls.  I can’t see Dean or Sam doing the extra work.  And, by the way, knowingly hiring an applicant who’s using fake ID means knowingly falsifying an IRS form, which is a federal crime.

Nora could be paying ‘Steve’ off the books, of course.  Except, Gas ‘n’ Sip is a chain.  I don’t think they’ve said whether Gas ‘n’ Sip owns their stores directly, or if they’re a franchise operation?  If the stores are corporate-owned and Nora is a paid manager, then she’d be fired on the spot when corporate found out she’d hired someone off the books, and they might sue her later.  If it’s a franchise operation, having an off the books employee would be grounds to terminate the franchise agreement, which would mean the Gas ‘n’ Sip people showing up and repossessing their signage and equipment, and possibly suing her later.

And this is in an economy where people are *begging* for work.  I don’t care how good looking and well spoken Castiel is, there’s dozens of respectable people in the neighborhood who will front shelves and run a register for minimum wage who already have legit ID and SSN.  

And the part where ‘Steve’ is sleeping in the storeroom?  That’d add the risk of citations for violating the local health & safety codes (and possibly having the store padlocked, for however long) to the risk of immediate firing or losing her franchise agreement.  

It would have been more plausible had we seen Castiel doing yard work or field work, which are professions where people do still get hired for the day and paid in cash.  The folks doing the hiring in those areas prefer employees who can convincingly claim to not speak English, though - it makes for more plausible deniability for the employer when the relevant agencies come sniffing around.

tl;dr: the setup as shown indicates that Nora is very stupid, very shady, or living in a television show.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn vs reality](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-vs-reality) [#spn 9x06 Heaven Can't Wait](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-9x06-Heaven-Can%27t-Wait)

 

* * *

 

[1/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/108716718744/filleretive-what-exactly-would-rowena-gain-from) [why would Rowena want the first blade?]

I think the idea was to take his toy and leverage the ensuing hijinks - whatever they turned out to be - into another stepping stone out of Crowleyville.  

She could figure out whether the Blade itself might have independent value to her later.

[1/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/108718316759/messier51-welkinalauda-filleretive-what)

I read it as, Rowena can’t leave without Crowley’s permission.  There’s guards, there’s magic - she can’t get out.  And the guards would be happy to kill her if Crowley wasn’t telling them to let her live.  So the game is to maneuver Crowley into willingly letting her walk out.  She could blackmail him with his bones, but that’d break the love/hate mommy issues con she’s been spinning, and odds on even if it worked she’d end up being chased by hellhounds at some point.  Smoother to get Crowley to let her out on (what he thinks is) his own initiative.  Leave his bones as a last resort.  

That’s assuming Rowena knows that she can destroy his spirit with his bodily remnants, though.  I don’t think we can be sure either way at this point.

What I couldn’t believe was Crowley just up and  _telling_  Sam Winchester where to find his bones.  Just how stupid is he supposed to be this season, anyway?

 

* * *

 

[1/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/108725051809/immigrants)  **Immigrants**

  * Lots of US flags over the past few seasons
  * No conspicuous immigrants, like, ever.  There’s a few Brits, but otherwise everyone - including demons who’ve been trapped in the pit since before the US was invented - talks like they were born & raised in the Midwest (except Dean, who sometimes sounds like he’s spent the past decade in Vancouver BUT I DIGRESS).  
  * With all the world to choose from, Crowley re-interred his bones in the US possession most remote from the US mainland.
  * Much visual representation of New World species like maize, buffalo, etc.
  * Not only no immigrants, no proud children of immigrants.  Has there been so much as a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the background?  I think the closest they’ve gotten to regular people doing Ethnicity is Oktoberfest.  And that was an excuse for bartenders in dirndls and had fuck-all to do with Germans.  I mean, you’d think the boys would observe Cinco de Mayo - half-price tequila shooters! Sam’s birthday! - if nothing else.
  * Rowena was humming “Scotland the Brave” while she worked her magic.
  * So many US flags.



They’ve set up this abstracted “America” where everyone must be descended from immigrants (sure as hell ain’t Native), but no person shows signs of having immigrated themselves.  Add Crowley, King of Hell, born in the old world but currently at rest in the remotest possible part of “America.”  Add Rowena, his mother, who’s older than the US and hums Scottish patriotic songs while she spies on her Sassenach-talking son.

Feels like that all should add up to something, but I’m not sure it does.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x10 The Hunter Games](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x10-The-Hunter-Games)

 

* * *

 

[1/22/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/108816397664/f-ckyeahfutbol-metatrons-end-game-is-to-break)

Oh, I like this very much.  I’ve thought all along that Metatron had a bigger plan than we were seeing.  He’s way too rational - and having way too much fun - for all those “mistakes” he’s made to be pointless nonsense.  He went to all that trouble to force an army of angels on a reluctant Castiel, so Castiel could choose Dean over an army of angels.  He set up an open mike in his office, so he could be ‘overheard’ on the open mike.  He set up Gadreel for redemption and himself for imprisonment.  I suspect he’s the one who fed Crowley the Cain thing in the first place.  

I assumed he was doing all this in aid of maneuvering the then-divided angels into peace and harmony (because, well, apparently I think like that).  But it makes much better sense of  _everything*_  if he’s trying to open the Cage.    

I wonder if Metatron means to puppetmaster the final prizefight, as well?

_____ 

> *Incuding the random Adam reference in 10x5

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#metatron](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/metatron) [#I wonder how the Grand Canyon fits in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wonder-how-the-Grand-Canyon-fits-in)

* * *

[1/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109027532044/regarding-all-the-untold-stuff-between-season-1-to)

Yes!  When Becky told them about the Colt, they were in the middle of desperately trying to avert the Apocalypse.  They’d do  _anything_ to keep it from happening… except investigate a readily-available source that they’d just been told contains fresh information.  The plan they finally settle on is Sam locking himself in a cell with the devil for eternity - but they couldn’t grit their teeth and read their own biographies.  Really?

It’s things like this that make me wonder if I’m supposed to gather that my woobies are only half-bright.

[#winchester gospels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/winchester-gospels) [#spn 5x09 The Real Ghostbusters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x09-The-Real-Ghostbusters) [#The stars seem a little dim](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-stars-seem-a-little-dim)

 

* * *

 

[1/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109171513609/not-saying-will-or-should-im-saying-could)  **Not saying WILL or SHOULD, I'm saying COULD**

I’ve been seeing posts about how it’s gotta be Destiel, because a) a brand-new Great Het Love can’t be organically introduced at this point, so it’ll look like (and be) production caving to the network suits’ insistence on propagandizing for compulsory heterosexuality, and b) they’ve killed all the possible women.  The first part is a fair point.

But they  _haven’t_  killed all the women.  

Cassie Robinson, Tara Benchley, and Jamie the bartender all lived through their episodes.  All canonically had sex, or are strongly implied to have had sex, with Dean.  There’s also all the unnamed women that Dean picked up in bars back when he was still playing at living it up.

Any of those women could have been left with a baby Winchester.  Since vessel-hood is genetic, any of those hypothetical children could be a vessel.  What with all the angels falling and taking vessels all willy-nilly, any of those hypothetical children could be inhabited by an angel.  One easy pretext, and mother and angel-child are reunited with the Winchesters.  

Imagine if Cassie showed up with a ten-year-old and angel problems, saying “sorry about using you and throwing you out and never calling, but our kid really needs your help right now”?  There’s a romance with some backstory to it, and the kid’s a dandy excuse for Dean getting all self-sacrificing and renouncing Destiel.  

If they wanted to make the cock-block less direct, Cara Roberts, Sparrow Jennings, or Amelia Richardson could turn up with Sam’s angel-baby instead.

Of course, this being SPN, anything like the above is apt to turn out to be the set-up for a fridging (and the possibility of Show morphing into  _Three Men and a Baby: The Bunker Years_ ).

But it could happen.

[#hypotheticals](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hypotheticals) [#possibilities](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/possibilities) [#not all the women are dead](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-all-the-women-are-dead) [#and they could always resurrect Jess or Jo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-they-could-always-resurrect-Jess-or-Jo)

 

* * *

 

[1/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109308056614/picsofrandomness-larinah-iwatchthepie) [—>  **Actual Fun fact - none of those lines/glyphs were on the blade when it first appeared on the show. They were added to a later version of the prop.]**

Bolding mine.

If the glyphs weren’t there to start with, then they could be an outward sign that the Blade is remaking itself to its new wielder’s hand.

(Or the prop department belatedly getting clever… no, I like the first one better.)

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x10 The Hunter Games](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x10-The-Hunter-Games) [#First Blade](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/First-Blade)

 

* * *

 

[1/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109310454039/behold-the-river-shall-end-at-the-source)  **"Behold, the river shall end at the source."**

[agentfreewill](http://agentfreewill.tumblr.com/post/109116644597/baddies-in-the-hunter-games) pointed out that Metatron doesn’t start really digging at Dean until he’s been assured that the First Blade is off the premises.  What I noticed is that Metatron doesn’t spit out the cryptic portentious bit about the river until Castiel is actually in the process of smiting the door.  He waited until the cavalry was there to rescue him, and only then doled out a clue.

And since Metatron brought up rivers:

 

 

> CLERK: The people of the Two Rivers tribe came to this land centuries ago. A land that was harsh, and stony. But the mighty leader told his people that they must stay here. He claimed that this was the home on Earth of the great spirit’s sacred messenger, and that if they’d make offerings, their blessings would be many.
> 
> DEAN: What were the offerings?
> 
> CLERK: Huh?
> 
> DEAN: Uh, what did the great spirit’s sacred messenger ask for?
> 
> CLERK: Stories. He asked the people to tell him stories.
> 
> [DEAN spots an old photo on which the hotel’s MANAGER looks exactly as he does now.]
> 
> DEAN: I bet I know what the blessings were.

[[Transcript](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D8.21_The_Great_Escapist_%28transcript%29&t=YTQ1NTNkMTUwZjQxNmZkY2U4ZjFiYmI5ZmYyZDMzNjQwZmQxYzEzNixIaFFueXlyZw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F109310454039%2Fbehold-the-river-shall-end-at-the-source&m=1)]

Metatron’s minions call themselves the Two Rivers Tribe.  I wonder what they’ve been up to lately?

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x10 The Hunter Games](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x10-The-Hunter-Games) [#spn 8x21 The Great Escapist](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-8x21-The-Great-Escapist) [#Eccl 1:7](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Eccl-1%3A7)

 

* * *

 

[1/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109459507509/snowlantern-rewatching-6x21-let-it-bleed-i) 

This sounds right, and if anything, it makes the whole deal more appalling.

A woman’s identity obliterated, because a man with connections to the power to make it happen thought it would benefit a boy.  No need to consult the woman, or the boy, for that matter.  The man can enforce his will, so he knows best.  No need to trouble himself with bagatelles like consent and autonomy.

I mean, it was bad enough when I thought Dean was doing a panicked flail and seizing on the first thing he could think of to make his flight from this problem permanent.  But the idea that he rationalized it out for himself in advance, told himself he was doing *good*… even worse.  

> And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.“
> 
> "It’s a lot more complicated than that–”
> 
> “No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
> 
> – Granny Weatherwax

 

* * *

 

[1/29/15 ](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109492816594/elizabethrobertajones-iwatchthepie-dale)

Shouldn’t they have cats & dogs & guinea pigs in the bunker?  Wild animals out in the world, domesticated animals at home.

Tiffany mica guinea pig lamps.  *falls into reverie*

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#interior desecrations](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/interior-desecrations) [#lampshading](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lampshading)

 

* * *

 

[1/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109602305884/f-ckyeahfutbol-sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol)

…and this is another reason they should populate that bunker.  While our boys are digging through the lore in the library, *someone* should be going through the books and figuring out what the Men of Letters still own, what’s been sold for taxes or lost to imminent domain and mechanic’s liens, and if there’s a legal/financial manager somewhere who’s somehow been functioning without client instructions for decades.  

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn vs reality](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-vs-reality) [#death and taxes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/death-and-taxes)

 

* * *

 

[1/31/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109681712029/re-your-tags-about-aliens-it-has-always-annoyed)

Zachariah’s line about this not being the first planetary enema they’ve administered, maybe?

We’ve seen that in-show the multiverse theory is true.  So when Death starts talking about a better planet, he could easily mean a better version of Earth, rather than something like Pandora or Chulak.

Which doesn’t explain Dean insisting that aliens can’t possibly be real - he was similarly sure there couldn’t be angels, on the same grounds, and look how that turned out.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#bigfoot is a hoax though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bigfoot-is-a-hoax-though)

 

* * *

 

[1/31/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109696282029/trai-all-because-sam-loves-dogs-and-has-always)

Because he’s not actually a complete monster?  So he picked up the dog he’d hit and took it for emergency care, like a minimally decent person.

Now, why Amelia snarking at him about the dog would make him suddenly take root on the spot, that part I’ve never really gotten, either.  [Best I can come up with is, he didn’t have much left but inertia at that point, so he was only moving because he was already in motion.  Once something stopped him for more than a day, he couldn’t muster the energy to get rolling again.  But I’m not sure I entirely buy that.]

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 8x01 We Need to Talk about Kevin](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-8x01-We-Need-to-Talk-about-Kevin)

 


	2. February

[2/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109795498289/f-ckyeahfutbol-sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol)

…which explains why a salesman decided to take over Hell.  It never was a sensible move.  Crowley was running the supply chain, so he’d be in good position no matter who took over, and he doesn’t like (and isn’t all that good at) day-to-day administration.  The job in and of itself wouldn’t be tempting.  But if he’s doing it to impress a boy, well, that makes a silly, lovesick kind of sense.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 2x22 All Hell Breaks Loose Part II](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x22-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose-Part-II)

 

* * *

  

[2/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/109809077374/mittensmorgul-elizabethrobertajones-sandraugiga)

canon: 

  * Lucifer tempted and twisted Lilith’s soul into the first Demon  
  * Lilith holds all the deals  
  * Lilith’s death was the last seal



headcanon: 

  * Human souls (even demonized) cannot effectively buy the soul of another human; for the deal to work there has to be an angel doing the buying
  * Souls sold at the crossroads are being bought on Lucifer’s behalf, and but for the Cage, the power of those souls would be his to use
  * The angels who built the Cage designed it to run off the Lucifer-owned souls - the power from those souls flows into and strengthens the bars rather than Lucifer himself
  * The angels who built the Cage used Lilith to plug the last chink around the door, because poeticalness
  * Lilith was Lucifer’s agent and vicar in Hell, because she was first demon and she was still closest to him
  * Lilith held all the deals because she was the agent for the angel who is the ultimate owner of those souls
  * Lilith could be simultaneously keeping the door shut and running around on Earth causing trouble because ineffableness *handwave*
  * Hell was so horrible because Lucifer really, really hates human beings in any format



With Lilith gone and the Cage re-sealed, Lucifer is still the nominal purchaser when demons buy souls, but the damned aren’t reporting to him any more, not even indirectly.  Plus, seems like a lot of the  _really_ old demons are dead or have opted out of chain of command.  The old armigerous aristocracy is dead or withdrawn, leaving power to be usurped by a jumped-up tailor of no pedigree who isn’t even a thousand years dead.  But he is very effective at selling to the live people of today…

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics) [#the cage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-cage) [#lilith](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lilith)

 

* * *

  

[2/3/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110051130554/filleretive-what-is-it-its-cake-not-pie)

Not what he wants, not what he loves… but he’s hungry, and it’s there, so he goes for it anyway.  Until someone points out it might be poisoned.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x12 About a Boy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x12-About-a-Boy) [#if you can't be with the dessert you love](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-you-can%27t-be-with-the-dessert-you-love) [#love the dessert you're with](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/love-the-dessert-you%27re-with)

 

* * *

 

[2/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110172477599/f-ckyeahfutbolstonermicha-ugh-this-is-probably)

He’s not rejecting classic rock.

He’s stopped reflexively rejecting pop.  (Or, at least, he’s experimenting with not reflexively rejecting pop.)

Different thing.

 

* * *

  

[2/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110173979354/do-you-have-any-further-thoughts-on-your-teenage) [getting back on the grid after being de-aged]

I think the simplest plan would be to head for a big city and find a homeless youth assistance program or the kind of bad-neighborhood church that runs a soup kitchen and has family shelter beds, and tell the nice people there something as close to the truth as seems practical in the moment.  She may have to try a couple places, but someone eventually will hook her up with the right agencies, who will do the paperwork to have her officially exist.

Not particularly safe or easy, but relatively simple.

 

* * *

  

[2/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110308044729/there-is-a-lot-of-music-in-the-world-that-isnt)

There is a lot of music in the world that isn’t 70s stadium rock.  They could have picked anything for Dean’s first experiment with not changing the station.  But they didn’t put Jimmy Cliff on that radio, or Nina Hagen, or Vivaldi.  They picked a pretty white girl singing totally accessible teeny-bopper pop.  Why the kid music?  

Because it’s kid music.  

Dean spent his teeny-bopper time listening to his father’s music and mothering his little brother.  He didn’t get to properly  _adolesce_ , as our culture understands it.  

So now, finally, at the age of thirty-six, he is doing the dance of experiment and separation-from-parent that he should have done at sixteen.  This time, John’s not there to insist on Zeppelin.  This time, if he messes up he won’t get stuck in juvie while his little brother goes into foster care, possibly never to be seen again.  He can try being a kid for a while, complete with kid music, and see what he grows up into.  

Second chance.

(Jimmy Cliff, “[The Harder They Come](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxGE4dnrPPZQ&t=YmQ1N2MyN2QyNDhlYmJmZmI0YzZmYjk4N2UzNDQxM2QwMGY2ZjJmMCxxamNpSzNEZg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F110308044729%2Fthere-is-a-lot-of-music-in-the-world-that-isnt&m=1)”)

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x12 About a Boy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x12-About-a-Boy)

 

* * *

  

[2/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110356218479/larinah-yaelstiel-laoih-headcanon-time)

They’re weirdly specific about exactly when Sam stopped believing in the Easter Bunny.  Something happened in the Fall of ‘94, something memorable enough to mark on their family calendar, that left them with definite opinions about that rabbit.

[#bunnies bunnies it must be bunnies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bunnies-bunnies-it-must-be-bunnies)

 

* * *

 

 

[2/8/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110450662924/well)

I assumed the witch was Gretel, myself.  But if she’s not, then all we actually know for sure is that Hansel - if that really is his name - tells lies.  That sad story of the evil witch making him eat his beloved sister’s heart could have been spun from pure bullshit.  Did he eat anyone’s heart, much less his sister’s?  Did he even like the girl?  Was there ever a sister at all?  No way to know.

 

* * *

  

[2/8/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110467886649/about-a-girl)  **About a Girl**

  * “Hansel” is the German equivalent of “ **John** ny.”  
  * “Gretel” translates to “ **Meg** ” or “ **Maggie**.”  (Could also be read as any of the other nicknames for Margaret, like Peggy, Marge, Maisie, Daisy, Greta, Rita, etc., but those haven’t gotten used repeatedly by SPN.)  
  * “Katje” (the witch(?)) is yet another  **Kate**.  
  * “Tina” is a feminine suffix.  It’s a nickname for Christina, Valentina, Martina - anything that ends in “-tina,” basically - that’s now also used as a separate name.



Tina literally means “feminine form of.”

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x12 About a Boy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x12-About-a-Boy) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game)

 

* * *

 

 

[2/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110708812819/thoughts-on-halt-and-catch-fire)

He wasn’t hooking up, he was drooling at.  Conspicuously.  Ridiculously.  A parody cave man.  Like that cartoonish display of chowing down, with the full fringe of noodles draped from his mouth.  And his repeated assertion that he doesn’t understand these kids today and their newfangled gadgets.

This is Dean being the version of himself that Sam described in  _Tall Tales_.  

I don’t know if they meant it as Dean intentionally performing an outdated caricature of Sam’s perception of him, or if they meant it as Dean falling back to the old mechanisms and habits that led to that old perception.  Either way, that was not Dean’s best self on display there.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x13 Halt and Catch Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x13-Halt-and-Catch-Fire) [#spn 2x15 Tall Tales](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x15-Tall-Tales)

 

* * *

  

[2/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110731683614/sandraugiga-sandraugiga-sandraugiga-bless-the)

I totally missed it last night, but - 

“Corey” is from a surname, of unknown original meaning.

“Andrew” is from the Greek for man.  

This week’s ghost was named “ **man of silver**.”

[http://www.behindthename.com/](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.behindthename.com%2F&t=NGE4ZGYzOGZiODEwNmEwZjcxNjMyMWJhNTEwMjZiNjE4YjMxODgyOSxMVjFBYndYYQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F110731683614%2Fsandraugiga-sandraugiga-sandraugiga-bless-the&m=1)

[#spn 10x13 Halt and Catch Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x13-Halt-and-Catch-Fire) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game)

 

* * *

  

[2/12/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110913757844/source-of-the-river) **Source of the river**

Because of [something larinah said](http://larinah.tumblr.com/post/110826810432/did-you-notice-john-in-the-previously-section-at) about sources and the Grand Canyon (and because I am ridiculously literal), I looked up the headwaters of the Colorado.  Wikipedia says it’s [La Poudre Pass Lake](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FLa_Poudre_Pass&t=NzM1N2I5ZmQxOWFjMjMwYTViYTQ3MTY3MWVhZTVhZjhkMjAwYjEwZSxmcWN6Sm9Edg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F110882975994%2Fsource-of-the-river&m=1), in Grand County, CO.  

[US Route 34](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FU.S._Route_34&t=ZmFjMzk3MGY5YTk2ODlhZjczYzEyOGFmYzczMDEzMzk0OGM4MmM5OSxmcWN6Sm9Edg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F110882975994%2Fsource-of-the-river&m=1), the location given for the [Two Rivers Hotel](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D8.21_The_Great_Escapist&t=YTI5OGQ1NzU2ZjkxOWEzYmRjN2M5MWY0YzlmZWJjZTQ2OWFlYWQ0ZSxmcWN6Sm9Edg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F110882975994%2Fsource-of-the-river&m=1), runs from Granby, CO (in Grand County) to Berwyn, IL (in the Chicago suburbs).  

Between Grand Lake and Estes Park, Route 34 runs within five miles of La Poudre Pass Lake.

[#spn minutiae](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-minutiae) [#spn 8x21 The Great Escapist](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-8x21-The-Great-Escapist) [#spn 10x10 The Hunter Games](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x10-The-Hunter-Games) [#talking maps](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/talking-maps) [#larinah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/larinah) [#tangent time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tangent-time)

[#Nicolett Creek would make an excellent stage name](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Nicolett-Creek-would-make-an-excellent-stage-name) [#better than Grand Ditch for sure](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/better-than-Grand-Ditch-for-sure) [#oh hey](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oh-hey) [#there's an Elk Mountain a few miles southwest of La Poudre Pass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-an-Elk-Mountain-a-few-miles-southwest-of-La-Poudre-Pass) [#giant hoofed ruminants everywhere](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/giant-hoofed-ruminants-everywhere) [#talking maps](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/talking-maps)

[2/13/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/110918128444/source-of-the-river)

I haven’t seen Grand Canyon - when it was in theaters, I was Kevin Kline’d out, and it just hasn’t crossed my path since.  

I had always taken SPN’s references to the Grand Canyon as of a piece with picket fences and baseball games - nice things that Pleasantville Middle America gets to have, and Winchesters don’t.  A road trip to the Grand Canyon is the archetypal Brady Bunch family vacation.  For Winchesters, though, being on the road isn’t a vacation, it’s daily life, and they somehow never seem to get to the high-end destinations.  

Logistically, them never going to the Grand Canyon makes some sense - it’s kind of a PITA to get to, out in the middle of the desert, only reachable by roads which are tourist-infested and well-patrolled by cops.  John Winchester wouldn’t have taken the time, at first.  Later, as the warrants accumulated, he wouldn’t have taken the risk.

I think you’re likely right about that conversation with Hael being meant to mirror the movie - but I’d add in a dash of Thelma and Louise, and suggest that if TFW ever does get to the Canyon, the change of perspective they find there will be quite final.  And that circles back to [the post](http://larinah.tumblr.com/post/110826810432/did-you-notice-john-in-the-previously-section-at) that got me looking at maps - where is John’s spirit now?  Ash couldn’t find him in Heaven, and if he was in Hell you’d think someone would have used that against his sons by now.  The writers could make up another afterlife destination, I suppose, but it seems to me a more parsimonious solution that John’s spirit has attached itself to a significant object.  Like, say, the Impala.

I do not like that idea, because that would mean in order to exorcise John, they’d have to hurt Baby.  I don’t want them to hurt Baby.

[#Grand Canyon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Grand-Canyon) [#talking maps](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/talking-maps) [#holding hands and driving off a cliff with the car on fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/holding-hands-and-driving-off-a-cliff-with-the-car-on-fire)

 

* * *

  

[2/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111188092549/oh-my-god)

To my mind, the dialogue in  _Appointment in Samarra_  can be read either way - Death has said he finds Dean insignificant, and here’s Dean back  _again_ , tugging at Death’s trouser leg and demanding his blankie back.  Seems in character for Death to bat Dean around a little instead of correcting any misapprehensions he might have.  Or, Dean might not be wrong about Adam in the first place. 

More persuasive, to me, is that Dean and Sam have a track record of abandoning young people to whatever may come.  Adam being left to hell makes a pattern with Claire being left to DCFS and Kevin being left to run from demons and [all the one-off kids left to pick up their various pieces](http://iwatchthepie.tumblr.com/post/110674081587/kids-on-the-road-a-brief-look-at-vulnerable).  That is what SPN  _does_.  

Also of possible note - the gratuitous mention of Adam in  _Fan Fiction_.  What’s that doing there?  It would be pretty to think it’s foreshadowing of the boys making the happy discovery that their baby brother is fine,  **has been**  fine all this time… but that’s not really the show we’re watching, is it?

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 6x11 Appointment in Samarra](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x11-Appointment-in-Samarra) [#Dean = Rincewind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-%3D-Rincewind) [#iwatchthepie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/iwatchthepie) [#spn 10x05 Fan Fiction](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x05-Fan-Fiction) [#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location)

 

* * *

  

[2/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111194787819/trai-all-geckowincestuous-but-who-says-dying)

[#they have a firing range](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-have-a-firing-range) [#an empty dormitory](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/an-empty-dormitory) [#a comprehensive research library](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-comprehensive-research-library) [#an industrial kitchen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/an-industrial-kitchen) [#they could be the Hogwarts of the Midwest](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-could-be-the-Hogwarts-of-the-Midwest) [#but nooooo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-nooooo) [#lone wolves gotta lone](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lone-wolves-gotta-lone) [#giant goddamn waste of resources](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/giant-goddamn-waste-of-resources)

 

* * *

  

[2/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111246613494/trai-all-trai-all-oh-my-god-trai-all)

I think what they’re doing this season is making Sam the greek chorus/ audience stand-in - along for the ride, watching the progress of Dean’s story, making semi-informed (and thus unhelpful) remarks.  And… no.  It’s not that an audience avatar is abstractly a bad concept, but IT SHOULDN’T BE SAM.  Sam belongs on stage acting up a storm, not in the house watching.

But back on topic: if Adam is in fact in the cage, then if they open it again (tracing the river to its source, or whatever) out would pop Adam, beat to shit and encumbered by archangels.  The hijinks, they would ensue.

*falls into reverie*

[#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location)

 

* * *

  

[2/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111354938544/really-very-tired-of-supernatural-showing-torture)

Really very tired of Supernatural showing torture as  **the** reliable means of getting useful information.

[#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#it works for shit in real life on real people](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-works-for-shit-in-real-life-on-real-people) [#why is it supposed to be so effective on demons who've spent eternities](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-is-it-supposed-to-be-so-effective-on-demons-who%27ve-spent-eternities) [#getting tortured already by the time they get back to earth?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/getting-tortured-already-by-the-time-they-get-back-to-earth%3F) [#you'd think they'd be pretty well impervious](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you%27d-think-they%27d-be-pretty-well-impervious) [#bored even](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bored-even)

 

* * *

  

[2/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111445448744/exitpursuedbyasloth-robotmango-i-dont)

Feels to me like a late season of  _Buffy_.

I get that TPTB like Sheppard - I do too - but for the love of god, why won’t the writers justify their salaries and make up a plausible reason for him to be hanging around?  It doesn’t even have to be all that good a reason!  Their audience is prepared to believe six impossible things before breakfast, and rationalize away another half-dozen at tea.  But at some point, the writers have to give us something to work with.  

I ended up never wanting to see James Marsters again.  I would prefer not to come away from SPN with a similar aversion to Mark Sheppard.

[#Crowley = Spike](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Crowley-%3D-Spike) [#not a good thing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-a-good-thing)

 

* * *

 

[2/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111449548749/ambular-d-littlehollyleafambular-d-replied-to)

Cut off Dean’s mark-arm, hold the blade in that severed hand, stab Dean with it.

Or, taking a different tack, he could try the Colt.  (Last seen in Carthage, yes?)  It’s a toss-up whether it’ll work, but it’d be worth a try.

[#spn weapons](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-weapons) [#first blade](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/first-blade) [#colt](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/colt) [#come again to carthage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/come-again-to-carthage)

 

* * *

  

[2/19/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111542045894/evenwraithsgetdirections-littlehollyleaf)

oh!

Only vaguely connected to the above, but

 **That’s**  why Famine didn’t work on Dean.  I’ve always had a problem with that bit.  I mean, Dean all empty and longing for oblivion, that part made sense.  But why didn’t he do something about it?  Everyone else in town was helpless to resist temptation.  Dean had the tools and the know-how, but he didn’t even feint toward taking a shot at his goal.  

But if Dean even then had something (someone?) purposefully preventing him from staying dead…  If Dean had felt the Famine-push toward his heart’s desire, well, he’d lost the Colt by then, so he’d have used Ruby’s knife.  That knife kills the dead souls that are demons.  It would have killed Dean, body and soul.  He wouldn’t have been revivable from that.  So whatever it is that keeps resurrecting Dean insulated him from Famine’s effects, and Famine spun a tale to fig-leaf his own impotence.

[#spn headcannon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-headcannon) [#spn 4x08 Wishful Thinking](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x08-Wishful-Thinking) [#spn 5x14 My Bloody Valentine](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x14-My-Bloody-Valentine) [#SPN 5x16 Dark Side of the Moon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/SPN-5x16-Dark-Side-of-the-Moon) [#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#Dean = Rincewind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-%3D-Rincewind) [#Dean is not interested in your tea parties](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-is-not-interested-in-your-tea-parties) [#Is there - is there balm in Gilead?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Is-there---is-there-balm-in-Gilead%3F) [#Quoth the raven Nevermore](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Quoth-the-raven-Nevermore)

 

* * *

  

[2/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111620523054/elizabethrobertajones) [re: the red leather couch]

I keep seeing [Ferdinand the Bull](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FThe-Story-Ferdinand-Munro-Leaf%2Fdp%2F044845694X&t=NDQxOWRlNjBiYjJmZTc3NGFjNDdlNzQ2OGZjMjQ1Y2ZhMjJlZDYwNSxFSXFFcDBkdA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F111620523054%2Felizabethrobertajones&m=1).

 

* * *

  

[2/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111709767444/knives-are-unlucky-presents) [gif of Dean handing Castiel the first blade]

Knives are unlucky presents.

[#You're supposed to tape a penny to the handle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/You%27re-supposed-to-tape-a-penny-to-the-handle) [#to counteract the bad mojo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-counteract-the-bad-mojo)

 

* * *

 

[2/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111738688564/queen-of-carven-stone-oneofthosedeangirls)

Sam’s not an idiot.  Yes, yes, Dean should do the decent thing and debrief his prospective victims.  But Sam’s read Genesis 4 by now, plus every available commentary thereon.  Sam was  **there** when Dean came after him with a hammer.  Sam’s perfectly capable of reasoning from A to B.  He doesn’t need to be told that if Dean goes sour enough, he’ll try to kill Sam again.

Castiel and Crowley are another story.  A heads-up about Cain’s prediction might actually be telling them something they don’t already know.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x03 Soul Survivor](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x03-Soul-Survivor) [#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song)

 

* * *

 

[2/22/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111743399639/coolest-squirrel-ever-eta-found-the-moose) [images of brass household fans, in the shape of a squirrel and a moose]

[Coolest squirrel ever](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bedbathandbeyond.com%2Fstore%2Fproduct%2Fdeco-breeze-reg-cheeky-squirrel-table-fan%2F1043004348%3FKeyword%3Ddeco%2Bbreeze&t=M2NlMjg4MjBmMzZkMGRjOTI3MGE5NjhiZDZiNjNlNmRkMTg4NmQ4YixRTnZBckh3eg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F111743399639%2Fcoolest-squirrel-ever-eta-found-the-moose&m=1).  _eta:[found the moose](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bedbathandbeyond.com%2Fstore%2Fproduct%2Fdeco-breeze-large-moose-fan%2F1040385433%3FKeyword%3Ddeco%2Bbreeze&t=NjZiYTQ3YTI0M2FkMGUyMGQ0ZWQzN2RmZTU1NGY1NWVlNjczNzJkOSxRTnZBckh3eg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F111743399639%2Fcoolest-squirrel-ever-eta-found-the-moose&m=1)._

[#paging Jerry Wanek](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/paging-Jerry-Wanek) [#such a fan](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/such-a-fan) [#I didn't know such things existed](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-didn%27t-know-such-things-existed) [#not sure they should exist](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-sure-they-should-exist) [#there's a giraffe too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-a-giraffe-too) [#lions and tigers and bears](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lions-and-tigers-and-bears) [#seriously thinking about getting the elephant](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/seriously-thinking-about-getting-the-elephant)

 

* * *

  

[2/22/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/111815544999/tenoko1-littlehollyleaf-this-is-pretty-much-the)

Remember toward the end of Meta Fiction, Dean touched Castiel, and that’s when Castiel  **knew** that Dean had the Mark?

I wonder if Castiel didn’t want to touch Dean because if he touched Dean, then he would  **know** what had come out of that room.  And if he knew for sure, and it was bad, then he’d have to choose on the spot whether to do as Dean has (twice, now) asked, or ignore Dean’s wishes and leave him alive.  But if they didn’t touch, then Castiel wouldn’t know, not for sure, and he wouldn’t have to make the hard choice then and there.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 9x18 Meta Fiction](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-9x18-Meta-Fiction) [#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#ways of knowing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ways-of-knowing)

 

* * *

 

 

[2/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112289282179/supernatural-season-10-titles)

so, speculating: The Prisoner in question is Lucifer, source of the murder river thingie.  In the process of whatever foolhardiness the boys get up to w/r/t him, they manage to remember Adam, and he’s the brother in Brother’s Keeper.  The ‘keeper’ part could be the cage itself.  Or TFW having to lock Adam in the basement because after a few subjective eternities with the angry archangels, he’s not fit for company.  Or maybe the angry archangel(s) inhabiting Adam’s body after TFW oopses them all loose are his keepers.  (Seems like that third one would give the most scope for season 11, so that’s probably not it.)

I haven’t seen  _Angel Heart_  in forever, but I remember it being all about the fans. 

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation) [#such a fan  
](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/such-a-fan)

 

* * *

  

[2/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112369363814/rainbofiction-rainbofiction-rainbofiction)

SPN is notable for having had a broken base from day one.  Except, back in the day, the break was over who was the hero.  I followed Ackles over from  _Dark Angel_ (and I never did get into  _Gilmore Girls_ ), so I was always predisposed to treat Dean as the hero and Sam as his sidekick kid brother.  The text as I understood it supported that interpretation.  

I cannot tell you how surprising it was to me the first time I ran across a meta that treated Sam as the hero - and I should say, not an  _argument_  that Sam was the hero, but an analysis of other matters that simply took as given that Sam was the hero and Dean was his sidekick big brother.  The writer of that meta had everything neatly sourced and tied to the text, too.  My objections amounted to "You are interrogating the text from the wrong perspective!”  Which is, obviously, not an argument.  I decided to come away from that impressed by the writers’ ability to create a single text susceptible to multiple interpretations.

But now, in the current season, it’s next to impossible to construct Sam as the hero.  Yes, he’s on screen every week, but we are not watching his journey.  We are watching him watch Dean’s journey.

I suspect some of the anti-Destiel venom is coming from people for whom Sam-as-hero was foundational to their understanding of the SPN text.  The writers really are pushing aside Sam ( **the** hero) to focus on Dean (the sidekick) and his relationship to Castiel (a secondary character).  No wonder the Samgirls are ticked.

[#spn meta meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta-meta) [#brotherly bonds](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/brotherly-bonds) [#polysemous perversity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/polysemous-perversity) [#I get why they're unhappy with Dean-as-hero](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-get-why-they%27re-unhappy-with-Dean-as-hero) [#they could stand to dial back the heteronormative bullshit though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-could-stand-to-dial-back-the-heteronormative-bullshit-though)

 

 


	3. March

[3/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112430753609/trai-all-littlehobbit13-agree-with-this-because) [some folks don't like Adam; some of us do]

What she said.

Also: I *had* let Adam go.  I had him resting peacefully in the vast SPN graveyard of fucked-over innocents and dropped plot points.

Then  **the writers**  brought him up again.   **They** put Adam on stage in the Winchester family group, singing the family anthem, while the stage manager tells Sam & Dean,  "Oh, that’s Adam. John Winchester’s other kid.  He’s still trapped in the cage, in Hell. With Lucifer.“

So talking about Adam is not comparable to, say, complaining that they should have had Lenore accompany Dean through Purgatory (which they totally should have, huge missed opportunity… but what’s done is done).  Talking about Adam, at this point, is a discussion of what’s been foreshadowed  **in canon** ,  **by the current writers**.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#adam milligan](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/adam-milligan) [#spn 10x05 Fan Fiction](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x05-Fan-Fiction)

 

* * *

 

[3/2/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112522688099/the-most-unbelievable-thing-in-s8-imo-is-that)

The effects of Dean’s abandonment issues cannot be overestimated.

[#Everybody leaves you Dean](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Everybody-leaves-you-Dean) [#You noticed?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/You-noticed%3F) [#Mommy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mommy) [#Daddy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Daddy) [#Even Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Even-Sam) [#You ever ask yourself why?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/You-ever-ask-yourself-why%3F) [#Maybe it's not them](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Maybe-it%27s-not-them) [#Maybe it's you](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Maybe-it%27s-you)

 

* * *

 

[3/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112772731829/rainbofiction-f-ckyeahfutbol-starborndean-i)

Ghosts. 

These days I think it’s all ghost story, like “[A Rose for Emily](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fxroads.virginia.edu%2F%7Edrbr%2Fwf_rose.html&t=MDQ0YTZhOGE2MGM1NmMzOGY2ZDEzMWNjMTM0MDgzOWQ4OGY2OGY1Myx0dWNJemdtTg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F112772731829%2Frainbofiction-f-ckyeahfutbol-starborndean-i&m=1)” was a ghost story.  Things and people hanging on impossibly long past their time.  The car, which runs on fuel they don’t sell any more.  Occult creatures who remain undocumented amid a civilian population who run  _toward_ commotion, cameras at the ready.  Our heroes, making a living at antique hustles and outdated scams.   Their father’s voice echoing in their ears.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#A Rose for Emily](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/A-Rose-for-Emily) [#Faulkner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Faulkner) [#it's 1 am](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-1-am) [#there's more I want to say but clarity eludes me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-more-I-want-to-say-but-clarity-eludes-me) [#going to bed now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/going-to-bed-now)

 

* * *

 

[3/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112898826599/whothefuckiscas-john-winchester-did-his-best)

“John Winchester did his best!”

A harsher indictment of his character I cannot imagine.

 

* * *

 

[3/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/112931323839/justjensenanddean-dean-winchester-10x14-the)

I look at that face and I see, “Oh god no.  It didn’t work.”

They were promised that stick of bone could kill them, and now they know it won’t.  That looks to me like Dean - who’s been some degree of suicidal since we met him - realizing there’s no way out, not ever.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song)

 

* * *

 

[3/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113308002579/iwatchthepie-assbuttimpala-i-believe-in-dean)

If John was gone long enough that Dean was trying to extend the cash in a card game and ended up stealing food, then any bruises John left would have faded past that.

I think those bruises came from the cop - Dean did give him a shiner - or maybe the shopkeeper who caught Dean stealing.

(Which is not to say John never did beat on Dean.  Just, that particular set of bruises aren’t solid evidence one way or another.)

[#spn 9x07 Bad Boys](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-9x07-Bad-Boys)

 

* * *

 

[3/13/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113570305809/northern-sparrow-i-was-rewatching-the-end)

OK, so, if Connie* there is Gabriel, then who’s the tricolor braided rug?  Another entity, maybe a genie?  Or still also Gabriel?  Like, he’s been transmogrifying to fit into the scene?  And if that’s the case, could he be other golden/gold-tone stuff in the background as well?  …maybe just things that start with “car-”.  Car, carpet, carnation, caribou, carp, carrot, caryatid, caravel.  (A golden caravel, in which to sail away, would be awesome.)

But also, if Connie is Gabriel, who’s Baby?  Because we  _know_ Baby is magic, with the cop-specific SEP field and the semi-infinite storage and such.  Michael?  No, can’t see him being that helpful.  Chuck?   **Chuck**.  Except we’ve seen Chuck and Baby in the same frame at the same time [4x18].  But then, if Chuck is really God, which he’d kind of have to be in order to be Baby, then bi-location and real-time interaction between two of Their avatars should be workable, right?  

hmm.

> __________
> 
> *I’ve been calling Castiel’s car Connie.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#Castiel's Car](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Castiel%27s-Car) [#Castiel's carpet](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Castiel%27s-carpet) [#Castiel's other things that start with car-](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Castiel%27s-other-things-that-start-with-car-) [#Gabriel is Connie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Gabriel-is-Connie) [#Chuck is Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Chuck-is-Baby) [#Ben is Glory](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Ben-is-Glory) [#Stream of nonsense](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Stream-of-nonsense) [#that starts with car-](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-starts-with-car-)

 

* * *

 

 

[3/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113734499814/littlehollyleaf-neven-ebrez-at-the-panel-and)

I do think those attitudes are partly generational, and partly whether you’ve had some therapy (or hang out with those who have).  Lots of folks are still quite convinced that only molestation and punitive battery that results in injuries requiring medical care count as “real” abuse.  Lots of folks still very invested in the idea that intentions are magic.  So, to their minds, repeated abandonment, persistent endangerment, and a grown man teaching hand-to-hand combat to children - no matter what the effects on the kids - can’t possibly be abusive as long as the parent keeps repeating, “I love my sons” the whole time.

Those ideas don’t really survive critical examination.  But has JDM ever had real occasion to do that critical examination?  I’m not sure that he has.  

[#spn](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

[3/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113762888784/sandraugiga-welkinalauda-littlehollyleaf)

I find John Winchester strongly reminiscent of my own mother, so.

And hell yes, we got abusive behavior from him in canon in the first season, and some of it was in scenes that JDM was  _in_  - but this is to some extent a semantic problem.  “Abusive” is one of those words people treat like kryptonite.  (’Racist’ is another one.)  So ask someone who hasn’t spent a lot of time talking and thinking about it, and it’s all “My character?  Abusive?  I wouldn’t say  _abusive_ …” and then follows a bunch of synonyms, euphemisms, and rationalizations for why this or that bit of plainly abusive behavior doesn’t count and was justified by good intentions.  And it’s not that they necessarily think the behavior they’re rationalizing was actually  _good_.  Just that in the lexicon they know, ‘abusive’ is a terribly  _harsh_ label, reserved for sexual or physical abuse (which only includes intentional broken bones and intentional injuries that leave visible scars).  Deserting the kids for weeks or setting them to fight monsters doesn’t meet that definition of abuse, and John wasn’t actively intending to harm the boys, so presto! the character isn’t  _abusive_.

Also - like I said, John Winchester reminds me of my mother,  **a lot**.  So when we talk about what sort of abuse he did or didn’t inflict on his kids, I find myself projecting, a lot.  Like, I don’t think he beat up Dean when Sam ran away, because my mother never had to hit us to put that look on our faces.  But, just because Sam and/or Dean react to John in ways that replicate the ways that my siblings and I reacted to our mother, that doesn’t necessarily mean that John enacted abuse in exactly the same way my mother did.  So, I know I’m projecting, but my stuff keeps getting mixed up in there anyway.

To your second paragraph - I don’t think John Winchester was paying enough attention to consider what he was doing shitty.  As in, I don’t think he ever did a realistic accounting of how often he was overdue, for how long, and how short he’d been with the money.  From his POV, the life he made for them was hard on the kids (vague about the details, never count it all up and do the math), but it was  _necessary_ , and he was doing the best he could, so case closed.  (That’s me projecting some of my father’s failures on John, so, grain of salt.)

[#spn](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

[3/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113769739794/sandraugiga-welkinalauda-sandraugiga)

Sam had a parental figure who was present, and made him top priority in their day-to-day life.  Dean… not so much.

I keep wanting to write up the list of correspondences between stuff the boys have done and stuff my siblings have done.  It’s a long list.  I also kind of want to get Sam on the phone and say, “you know what worked to get my eldest sister to dial back the controlling crap?  Telling her I knew she had gotten stuck with most of the scut work when we were kids and  **thanking her**  for her efforts.  And when she ramps back up with the controlling crap, it’s because she’s feeling particularly insecure and it really helps to give her a hug and say ‘I love you.’  Calms her right down.  Maybe you should try that with Dean.”  But… they’re fictional.

[#I started transcribing my last conversation with my mother](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-started-transcribing-my-last-conversation-with-my-mother) [#which is also not really relevant to JDM's opinions on how to characterize JW's parenting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-is-also-not-really-relevant-to-JDM%27s-opinions-on-how-to-characterize-JW%27s-parenting) [#but yeah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-yeah) [#I have to get some sleep](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-have-to-get-some-sleep) [#be back in my morning](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/be-back-in-my-morning) [#until then](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/until-then) [#drop me a note if you will](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/drop-me-a-note-if-you-will) [#be well](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/be-well)

 

* * *

 

[3/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113935094154/trai-all-are-you-saying-you-would-not-analyze)

**So** with you - I’d like the characters to grow up and become part of a larger community, and I’d like the writers to grow up and stop feeding all the secondary characters into a wood chipper.  

New people + new relationships among them = all kinds of new stuff to analyze.

[#spn](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn)

 

* * *

 

[3/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/113969330914/dustydreamsanddirtyscars-shiny-metal-cole-is-not)

Cole’s after Dean because Dean was there for Cole’s Traumatic Revenge-inspiring Event.  Cole’s taking it out on Dean, but (speaking as viewer) I still don’t see certainty that Dean was the agent of Cole’s trauma.  (I mean, we’ve got a child’s memory and a notoriously unreliable narrator trying to talk down a man with a gun… not exactly Memorex.) 

Cole keeps coming at Dean, and every time, it turns out Cole has no idea what he’s dealing with.  Cole is off by a few orders of magnitude, and even when he learns and adjusts, he still ends up being completely wrong about the nature of his target.  (Which makes an interesting parallel if Cole is John and Dean is his Azazel.  Makes an even more interesting parallel if Cole is John and Dean is Dean.)

I guess we’ll find out more tonight.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta)

 

* * *

 

[3/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114029237609/deanswingsbothways-im-half-an-hour-behind-you)

Isn’t the actor who plays Cole  _actual_ military?  Do guest actor not get to push back on bad dialogue, or what?

 

* * *

 

[3/19/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114050892644/yaelstiel-you-bought-him-dinner-once-upon-a)

Once upon a time, they made diners out of converted rail cars.  Now it’s converted food trucks, I guess.

“Best Gourmet Burger On The Highway In the USA!”  No highway visible nor within earshot.  I doubt the ‘gourmet’ part as well, seeing as the burgers are wrapped in paper for easy tossing.  [and they’re in Canada]

What’s in the background there, past the  _white picket fence_?   I do believe it’s meant for some sort of waterway, what with the foghorns blowing in the background and all.  No boats out tonight, though.

[#picket fences](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/picket-fences) [#navigable waterways](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/navigable-waterways) [#burgers with family](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/burgers-with-family) [#spn 10x15 The Things They Carried](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x15-The-Things-They-Carried)

 

* * *

 

[3/19/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114109817039/obsessionisaperfume-obsessionisaperfume-im)

Yes, but…

Sam’s not stopping Dean from grabbing a Tastee-Cake at the minimart.  He’s stopping Dean from impulse-eating his way into a stranger’s birthday celebration and obligating them both to at least 15 minutes of small talk with the cops.  Even before we reckon with the symbolism with which SPN has imbued Dean’s dessert choices, that cake is not just cake.

[#the cake is not just cake](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-cake-is-not-just-cake) [#workplace birthdays](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/workplace-birthdays) [#the horror of failing at small talk with your coworkers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-horror-of-failing-at-small-talk-with-your-coworkers) [#often not worth the cake](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/often-not-worth-the-cake) [#spn 10x15 The Things They Carried](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x15-The-Things-They-Carried)

 

* * *

 

[3/19/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114110240969/dean-sweat-10x15-even-when-its-ridiculously)

Even when it’s ridiculously hot in there, Dean keeps his layers.

Like an onion.  Or an ogre.  

Or perhaps, a parfait.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x15 The Things They Carried](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x15-The-Things-They-Carried) [#the parfait loved pie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-parfait-loved-pie) [#but now the parfait has begun to appreciate the virtues of cake](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-now-the-parfait-has-begun-to-appreciate-the-virtues-of-cake) [#dessert triangle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dessert-triangle)

 

* * *

 

[3/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114200920294/water-in-10x15)

At Sammy’s Highway Cafe, beyond the white picket fence, there was some sort of canal.  Foghorns were audible all through the conversation.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x15 The Things They Carried](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x15-The-Things-They-Carried) [#navigable waterways](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/navigable-waterways) [#water water everywhere](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/water-water-everywhere)

 

* * *

 

[3/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114242425174/i-dont-want-to-make-you-even-more-sad-but-why)

Lisa knew who he was and what he did, and she asked him to stay.  And that, I think, is what Dean was in love with, more than the white picket fence or even the worshipful kid with the good musical taste.  She asked him to stay.  John and Sam both left.  Yeah, they came back, but they both did their damnedest to keep leaving, until Sam gave up on getting out, until John died and stayed gone.  Cassie threw him out (twice!).  He’s got an open invitation to sleep on Bobby’s living room floor but it’s obviously not a permanent living arrangement.  Everyone else he knows just wants to know how soon he’ll be gone.  Lisa, though.  Lisa didn’t want the fake him he pretends to be to get by in the world.  Lisa waited until after the big reveal, the exact bit of information that made Cassie throw him out (twice!), and that’s when Lisa asked him to stay.  She found out who he really was, and  **that’s**  the guy she wanted to have live in her house and be the one her son looked up to.

That’s what Dean went back for: someone who actually  _wanted him_ , and was willing to say so out loud.  That’s why he stayed.  

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#lisa braeden](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lisa-braeden) [#never underestimate the effects of Dean's abandonment issues](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/never-underestimate-the-effects-of-Dean%27s-abandonment-issues)

 

* * *

 

[3/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114267427999/water-in-10x15)

On a tangential tangent, in the first scene in the bunker, Dean was wearing a green shirt.  The birthday cake was brown with green trim.  The bit of frosting Dean snitched would have been mostly green.  And, as you say, he was drinking the emerald water later on.

Funny how the ruby water has green labels.

Does green have a consistent meaning in the SPN schema?

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x15 The Things They Carried](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x15-The-Things-They-Carried) [#color symbolism](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/color-symbolism)

 

* * *

 

[3/22/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114343630219/messier51-spn-idjits-guide-to-hunting-i-wanted)

I still think everything past the graveyard in  _Swan Song_  is one long dream of Sam’s.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#five season dream sequence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/five-season-dream-sequence) [#it'd explain a lot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27d-explain-a-lot) [#i'm just saying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i%27m-just-saying)

 

* * *

 

[3/23/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114413095934/coffee-without-a-pause)

My explanation had been that the visions were sent by, or were otherwise on account of, Azazel, so they stopped when Azazel was killed.

But I like the idea of SPN repeating stuff from  _Buffy_ , so the prophet theory works for me.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#sources of second sight](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sources-of-second-sight) [#oh no we're nothing like buffy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oh-no-we%27re-nothing-like-buffy) [#ooh ick girl cooties](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ooh-ick-girl-cooties)

 

* * *

 

[3/23/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114478403704/larinah-yarnyfan-larinah-pilot-the-demise-of)

Balthazar said something once about how souls are full of power, and liable to explode.   

We’ve been told repeatedly that ghosts are human souls that stayed attached to the material plane instead of following a reaper to their final destination.    Too much time in the veil makes the soul unstable, and mean.  Destroying the object that tethers the soul to this world “kills” the ghost, usually in a burst of flame.  

My theory is that the dying-ghost light show is the material manifestation of the unstable soul, suddenly deprived of its anchor, exploding in the veil.  The specifics of the apparent visuals, I rationalize, depend on how tattered that soul has gotten, how much power it’s got left, and the self-perception of the soul that’s disintegrating.  (Hence the mirror-woman shattering.)  The main thing is, though, once they burn/shatter/disintegrate like that they’re  _really dead_.  Not in the matrix in heaven, or being tortured in hell, or even fighting it out in Purgatory, but all their energy has been dissipated and they’re  _dead_.

Constance Welch wasn’t done in by the destruction of her relics.  Instead she was forcibly brought into contact with the ghosts of the children she slew.  They dragged her soul off intact.  She’s… not alive, exactly, but in the SPN-verse I guess you’d say she’s still available for resurrection.

I don’t know if that’s better or worse.

[#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics) [#exploding souls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/exploding-souls)

 

* * *

 

[3/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114550659804/attention-everybody)

“It’s cookies! He smells like cookies — and the smell gets stronger when he’s in heat.”

– Andie MacDowell describing the archangel Michael

[#spn](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn) [#Michael](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Michael) [#Oh sweet baked goods of life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Oh-sweet-baked-goods-of-life) [#at last I've found you](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/at-last-I%27ve-found-you)

 

* * *

 

[3/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114566891109/supernatural-jared-padalecki-on-sam-and-deans)

There’s the Grand Coven, too.  And there should be someone from Purgatory in there, so that all corners of the afterlife are represented.  Leftover Leviathan, maybe, or perhaps the alpha vampire.  I like the alpha vampire.

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation)

 

* * *

 

[3/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114651993874/still-tired-of-spns-insistence-that-torture-is-a)

Still tired of SPN’s insistence that torture is a 100% effective means of eliciting pertinent information.

[#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black)

 

* * *

 

[3/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114652921039/trai-all-anjgirl0976-angelswatchingover-ok)

Yes - Dean was wincing like he was injured, and I figured that was why Sam was driving.

[#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black)

 

* * *

 

[3/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114654610074/deanswingsbothways-dean-winchester-went-on-a-rant)

That whole first part of Dean’s confession bugged, because he was pretty obviously making Gina up - even the ghost could tell - and he didn’t have to.  Not when he really did make out with some other girl while he was still dating Amanda Heckerling.  I mean, yeah, it was kid stuff and a long time ago, but he did in fact do young Amanda wrong.  Or, on a more substantive note, Dean could have confessed to never putting Lisa first in his heart, always being halfway out her door and getting gone as soon as Sam reappeared.  The ghost would have ate that up.

The part of Dean’s confession with the details was (unnecessarily) a lie, and the part that was true was carefully scrubbed of detail.  Even under the seal of the confessional, talking to a stranger who he doesn’t have to look in the eye and who he’ll never see again, Dean just can’t find it in him to speak concrete, specific truth about his inner life.

Music: Violent Femmes, “[Confessions](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DF4eyLiTGmBk&t=YTlkMzUyMDk4MTU0ZWM4ODkxMmNmNGM1MzA0NzY4M2I5Njk3YzAwYyxWcTlweExTdQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F114654610074%2Fdeanswingsbothways-dean-winchester-went-on-a-rant&m=1)”

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black) [#I've learned my lessons](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27ve-learned-my-lessons) [#And I don't even want to hear about your confessions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/And-I-don%27t-even-want-to-hear-about-your-confessions)

 

* * *

 

[3/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114679155364/iwatchthepie-welkinalauda-replied-to-your-post)

“Women invented all the core technologies that made civilization possible. This isn’t some feminist myth; it’s what modern anthropologists believe. Women are thought to have invented pottery, basketmaking, weaving, textiles, horticulture, and agriculture. That’s right: without women’s inventions, we wouldn’t be able to carry things or store things or tie things up or go fishing or hunt with nets or haft a blade or wear clothes or grow our food or live in permanent settlements. Suck on that.”

– [Dr Violet Socks](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reclusiveleftist.com%2F2012%2F06%2F05%2Fpatriarchy-in-action-the-new-york-times-rewrites-history%2F&t=MmE3ZGZmMmMyYWNlNDFhNTdkMGYwNzdiOGEyMTc1YzRkMDg4NzVkZiw4cjJTZ1h0OQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F114679155364%2Fiwatchthepie-welkinalauda-replied-to-your-post&m=1)

Women make; men take what’s been made and erase the makers.  

Up to now, I’d been reading the MoL/hunter thing as all about class, what with the particular brand of shit-talking Henry Winchester was doing about hunters.  But now it’s explicit in canon that the power of the aristocracy (and the academy) is knowledge made by women and violently appropriated by men.

I was not expecting that brand of radical feminism from SPN.

[#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black) [#Dr Violet Socks](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dr-Violet-Socks) [#iwatchthepie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/iwatchthepie)

 

* * *

 

[3/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114680361574/ooooh-dean-asking-about-how-you-leave-one-life)

Meg said something about organizing your life around a mission, too.

It’s just, Dean’s life has always been organized around a mission, and it’s made him miserable and killed him repeatedly.  Dude needs to get away from the purpose-driven life, imo.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black) [#same goes for Castiel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/same-goes-for-Castiel) [#and Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-Sam) [#they could all use some unforced aimlessness](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-could-all-use-some-unforced-aimlessness)

 

* * *

 

[3/27/18](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114743551419/just-occurred-to-me-olivette-and-isabella-might)

Just occurred to me, Olivette and Isabella might have been contemporaries.

Huh.

 

But, about Isabella.  I’m really glad there were four women with substantive speaking roles - five, if you count the possessed lady in the opening.  Because if there had just been Isabella, I’d be a lot more critical of the way that Isabella, even by her own self-justifying account, was a total nutter even before she went spectral.  

Painter-guy’s great sin, as far as I could tell, was to flatter her without being sufficiently enthralled by her to risk death or exile by pursuing a relationship.  The blood thing is fairly creepy, and would have been even creepier in Renaissance Italy, when they took things like Genesis 9:4-6 a bit more seriously than we do these days.  (I wonder if she’s a reliable narrator about whose idea the blood was, and then I wonder if I’m just trying to rig the evidence toward my theory.  And whoever’s idea it was, he did put her blood on that canvas.)  But severing her own finger?  NOT HIS IDEA.  Her declaration of eternal love?  Also not his idea.  He let her down as easy as he could, said good-bye, and thought that was the end.  

Her father was a heavy-handed controlling jackass about the whole thing.  I can rationalize his behavior to some extent - he turned out to have a character from _Heavenly Creatures_  for a daughter, couldn’t deal, panicked - but it comes back to a patriarch being patriarchal, locking up an inconvenient girl because he can.  

But she busted out.  Found painter-guy boinking his actual girlfriend.  Threw an “if I can’t have him I will disembowel him” tantrum, and got burned at the stake for her trouble.

This woman may have been hard done by, but she was not sane, not good, not justified.

(In terms of narrative mirrors, I think Isabella’s not meant to be reflecting any of the boys, but Rowena - the recurring character with an adolescent thirst for ‘greatness,’ who goes around taking what she wants and not worrying about the consequences as long as other people get the pointy end in the short term.  Not a long-range thinker, our Rowena.)

 

If it had just been Isabella as the sole representative of womanhood, then that would have been Show saying things about the monolith of women.  Instead this week we had a confused woman who didn’t know she’d been cuckolded, a nutter, a pleasant woman who takes ghosts in stride, a matriarch trying to exercise restraint on her tribe, and a supervillain.  

I love it when they write an array of substantively distinct female characters.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black) [#women are not fungible](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/women-are-not-fungible)

 

* * *

 

[3/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114886009669/sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol-softlesbian)

The boys regularly attended public schools, which means they’d have to show a vaccination certificate to enroll at least some of the time.  (John was an abusive jackass, but I like to think he’d have gone to the trouble of getting the kids their shots rather than go to the trouble of forging the certificates.)  In some places they actually do the vaccinations in-school, so there’s that, too.  

Sam surely got his shots up to date at the Stanford student health center.

Dean, maybe not, with the follow-ups?  He did spend a lot of time in and out of emergency care facilities looking young and neglected, so I figure it’s plausible some intern took pity on him and made sure he had shots.  Or not, that’s plausible too. 

Given how bitter Pestilence sounded about their good health, I suspect they may have angel mojo working for them, vaccinations or no.

 

* * *

 

[3/29/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/114974374304/on-identity-experimentation-and-pie)  **On identity, experimentation, and pie**

Dean’s got this rigid persona he’s built over the past thirty-odd years, and he’s just recently finding it so constricting that he’s actually experimenting with dismantling it a little.  Letting Taylor Swift play on the Impala’s radio, for example, or being willing to try cake (or a croissookie) instead of insisting on pie.

This is good.

Sam seems to be pushing back, though.  Giving Dean the evil eye over the Taylor Swift, denying Dean a slice of cake, that sort of thing.

This is bad.

Except…

Sam loves his brother, wants him to be happy and healthy, un-cursed, not-suicidal, all that good stuff.  But also, Sam loves  _his brother_ , the specific person who is the sum of all the mannerisms and preferences and bad jokes that Sam’s been living in close quarters with for most of their lives.  I doubt Sam ever felt like he had a stake in the details of Dean’s dessert selection. It’s just, if a man insists that  **he must have pie**  enough times, eventually, you take him at his word.  You internalize “my brother only wants pie and gets mad if I bring him cake instead.”  Even when you know the guy is, like, 80% facade, enough repetition and you’ll believe the pie-loving is  _him_ , not his facade.  Similar process with the music selection, though that’s complicated by it being John’s music originally and also Sam having a self-interest in what music he’s stuck listening to in the car.  Pie-love is a harmless quirk of Dean’s, and after a few decades of Dean asking for pie, it’s reasonable for Sam to believe pie-positive is just the way Dean  _is_.

Since Sam sees the pie thing as just part of his brother, it would never occur to him to wish it away.  It’s not something to fix.

Sam knows that Dean is not well, and he knows Dean will have to make changes to get to be healthier and happier.  But the changes Sam was expecting/hoping for were more on the lines of “Dean drinks less” and “Dean opens up to someone about his emotional wounds” and “Dean gets help with the raging PTSD.”  Or, optimally, “we find a cure for all this supernatural shit and live kinda normal-ish lives until we die of old age and go to Heaven.”  

Not, “mmm, that cake looks good.”  Not, “yeah, I’ll let Taylor Swift play on Baby’s speakers.”

That was not the kind of ‘opening up’ Sam was expecting.

And, really, that kind of break from long-established pattern?  In Winchester-world it’s usually a clue that someone’s been possessed or bespelled, not a sign that someone is making a move toward improved mental health.

It’d be nice if Dean opened up to Sam enough that Sam could know that the cake and the Taylor Swift are good signs, not bad.  Until Dean does some talking, though, Sam pushing back is Sam trying to do his best by his brother.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn season 10](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-10) [#family dynamics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/family-dynamics) [#brotherly bullshit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/brotherly-bullshit) [#pie vs cake](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pie-vs-cake)

 

* * *

 

[3/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115036628424/wellwhataboutme-im-just-starting-to-think-that)

This has been bugging me.  Because a) He already did the live-fast-die-young thing.  Three times, at least.  The dead part hasn’t stuck yet.  And b) the impression I’d gotten from ‘recent events’ is that he might not be able to die at all.  

Coming to terms with the possibility of actual immortality would be a good reason to do some soul-searching.  I know a fair number of people who hit thirty and went, “oh, wow, I didn’t die young after all.  Looks like I’m going to have to live the rest of my life.  Time to work out what I want from that.”  Dean should be doing  _that_ , just with the longer time horizon.

But instead he’s still repeating the “oh, I might die young (again), this time it might stick (?), woe is me” thing he’s been at since we met him.

Boy need to stop reciting the same old story, start telling himself the tale he’s actually living in.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x16 Paint It Black](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x16-Paint-It-Black) [#no Dean you're not going to die](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-Dean-you%27re-not-going-to-die) [#you're going to have to grow up instead](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you%27re-going-to-have-to-grow-up-instead)

 

 

 


	4. April

[4/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115275534759/missed-opportunity)  **Missed Opportunity**

Dean found Ash’s watch in the ashes of the Roadhouse.

The Winchesters have storage lockers filled with curse boxes where they keep all manner of stuff.

Ash already hacked Heaven from the inside.  He could and did get past the guards at will.

AND THE SCRIPT COULDN’T THROW AWAY A SINGLE LINE EXPLAINING WHY REACHING OUT TO ASH  **WASN’T** THEIR FIRST MOVE.

They didn’t  _have to_  hire Chad Lindberg for the episode instead Jim Beaver, but ferchrissake they should have spent a few seconds of airtime dismissing the possibility.

[Sam says the Leviathans ate their storage containers.  Castiel says Ash was expelled from Heaven and is now making trouble in the veil.  SOMETHING.]

 

The cheez whiz on that plate of nachos?  The psychic scene was intercut with the scene of Dean relieving that college boy of his shiny, shiny watch.  Replace Bobby’s hat with Ash’s watch (and random new psychic with that nice man from Lily Dale who had the message from Ellen) and we’ve got all kinds of fun with symmetry and recurrence.  With timepieces!

Missed opportunity.

[#spn 10x17 Inside Man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x17-Inside-Man) [#spn 2x21 All Hell Breaks Loose](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x21-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose) [#spn 3x03 Bad Day at Black Rock](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x03-Bad-Day-at-Black-Rock) [#SPN 5x16 Dark Side of the Moon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/SPN-5x16-Dark-Side-of-the-Moon) [#spn 7x07 The Mentalists](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x07-The-Mentalists) [#Make the writers watch all the old seasons before they get to submit a script](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Make-the-writers-watch-all-the-old-seasons-before-they-get-to-submit-a-script) [#please](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/please)

 

* * *

 

[4/2/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115302301409/welcometoawkwardville-f-ckyeahfutbol)

[#dude's the Scribe of God](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dude%27s-the-Scribe-of-God) [#pretty much anything he says could be prophecy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pretty-much-anything-he-says-could-be-prophecy) [#who knows where those ideas actually came from?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-knows-where-those-ideas-actually-came-from%3F)

 

* * *

 

[4/2/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115363441104/iwatchthepie-larinah-obsessionisaperfume)

Possibly relevant: Villechaize played the King of the Sixth Dimension in cult classic  _Forbidden Zone_ , with Danny Elfman as Satan.

“Is [Satan] the leader of the Sixth Dimension?”

“No, that’d be the little midget King.”

[#spn 10x17 Inside Man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x17-Inside-Man) [#nachos](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/nachos) [#Forbidden Zone](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Forbidden-Zone) [#excellent soundtrack](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/excellent-soundtrack) [#in which Elfman debuts the musical motifs he's been selling Hollywood ever since](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-which-Elfman-debuts-the-musical-motifs-he%27s-been-selling-Hollywood-ever-since) [#still haven't seen the movie though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-haven%27t-seen-the-movie-though) [#turns out my Boingo love does know some bounds](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/turns-out-my-Boingo-love-does-know-some-bounds)

 

* * *

 

[4/3/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115373365684/that-bar-thats-deans-local-its-where-he)

That bar?  That’s Dean’s local.

It’s where he (and maybe Sam) go when they want the familiar, comfortable feeling of bending an elbow in not-quite-random company.  Sometimes it’s a good thing to do your drinking in a place where you have to be mindful that someone may take your keys, you know?  Especially when you’re home alone.  Dean’s a recognized regular there - knows the bartender’s name, bartender knows his order, they have in-jokes.  It’s his local.

You don’t go barging into a man’s local trying to start shit.  You just don’t.

Those three college boys didn’t seem to know that, so Dean helpfully gave them a lesson and made them pay for it.

Hustling and risking a fist fight makes perfect sense when you realize that bar is Dean’s territory, and hustling those brats was the most economical method of defending his territory against aggressive interlopers.

Which, btw, makes Rowena’s appearance in the suddenly-emptied bar even more intrusive and unsettling.  She might as well have attacked in Dean’s living room.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x17 Inside Man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x17-Inside-Man) [#whether or not Dean banged the bartender](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/whether-or-not-Dean-banged-the-bartender) [#I don't think it was Dean's primary motivation for taking that kid's watch](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-think-it-was-Dean%27s-primary-motivation-for-taking-that-kid%27s-watch)

 

* * *

 

[4/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115680349789/sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol)

Donnie, and the patrons of his bar.  Where did all those pool players go?

I  _hope_ Rowena just inspired them all with a sudden overwhelming urge to be elsewhere rather than something nasty, but she hasn’t usually been that nice.

 

* * *

 

[4/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115733421724/if-dean-is-so-intelligent-why-did-he-ever-get)

But also,  _did_ Dean get held back?  We’ve been told he dropped out, and that he’s got a GED instead of a diploma, but I don’t remember that he’d been held back a grade.  Anyone got a cite?

[#I envy this anon their lack of familiarity with the US school 'system'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-envy-this-anon-their-lack-of-familiarity-with-the-US-school-%27system%27)

 

* * *

 

[4/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115773471834/f-ckyeahfutbol-sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol)

Two of my sisters have degrees from Seven Sisters schools.  One taught high school for a while and is now doing admin work, and the other is a college professor.

For quite a while now, everyone’s advice has been to tell teenagers to go to the best school they can get in to, major in whatever seems interesting at the time, take out loans to cover it, and the school’s reputation would magically increase future earnings to cover the loan repayments.  Which is how US student loan debt got to total over a trillion dollars.

So, sure, Jessica Moore could have been a very practical girl working toward a very practical degree on scholarship.  She could also have been an ordinarily impractical middle-class girl paying for an art history degree with student loans.

I agree 100% that there’s no way she would have been wearing that costume if she was planning a nursing career.

 

* * *

 

[4/8/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/115858765044/neven-ebrez-larinah-we-got-another-bar-within-a)

Maybe, the Phone Demon got Rowena within a ten mile radius, and then she used a standard location spell to find where Dean was at that moment?  (If he’d stayed in that night, could she have found him at all?  Dunno.)  

I’ve been thinking far too much about the location of that bar.  I figure, since he’d have to drive to get anywhere, even into Lebanon, there’s no reason for him to be constrained to the  _nearest_ bar.  He likes driving, and the roads are kind of empty out there, so a drive of fifty miles or so seems reasonable to me.  A fifty mile radius from Lebanon comes just shy of Hastings, NE and Concordia, KS.  Everything within the radius is a smaller town than Hastings or Concordia.  If the bar’s a chain, it’ll be in or by a larger town, rather than one of the many hamlets.  Hastings actually has a college in town, which would make slumming students less of a novelty.  Concordia has a community college, and a WalMart supercenter.  Either town is well within range of students from bigger schools (University of Nebraska Lincoln, or Kansas State in Manhattan, respectively) if they got an urge to go driving.

I think that bar’s down by Concordia.

[#spn 10x17 Inside Man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x17-Inside-Man) [#Donnie's Bar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Donnie%27s-Bar) [#obsessive attempts to situate fictional elements in reality](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/obsessive-attempts-to-situate-fictional-elements-in-reality)

 

* * *

 

[4/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116142252374/do-you-think-dean-always-eating-or-at-least)

Sam likely spent some of his teen years fending for himself, after John started taking Dean off on hunts with him.  Sam never had a second mouth to feed, though.

Then when Sam was 18, he got that full ride from Stanford.  I gotta figure, a ‘full ride’ offered to a homeless kid is going to include room and board.  Which would mean, Sam went from eating whatever calories a couple of homeless kids could scrounge up, to unlimited grazing in the Stanford dining halls.  He wouldn’t have to choose between the cheeseburger and the salad, he could have both.  And second helpings of both.  And some tofu on the side, and an ice cream cone to round things out.  He could eat and eat, until he was convinced that the bounty  _wasn’t_  going to evaporate like fairy gold.  Until he could be confident that the next mealtime would punctually bring another meal, so he need only eat what he’s hungry for in the moment.  Sam had a few years of food security just as he was hitting adulthood, and it recalibrated his eating habits from those of poverty to those of the upper middle class.

Dean never had that interlude of security.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#food insecurity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/food-insecurity) [#habits of youth and childhood](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/habits-of-youth-and-childhood)

 

* * *

 

[4/12/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116250624749/elizabethrobertajones-clairvoyantsam-they-go) [Ruth Connell, on the rest of season 10: THEY GO THERE]

I’m putting 20 on the Grand Canyon.

[#they run Baby right off the edge](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-run-Baby-right-off-the-edge) [#that bit with them pulling her out a ditch is foreshadowing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-bit-with-them-pulling-her-out-a-ditch-is-foreshadowing) [#that they'll all get back out intact](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-they%27ll-all-get-back-out-intact)

 

* * *

 

[4/13/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116364574199/help-me-count-this-up-yall)  **Help me count this up, y’all**

I’m trying to remember how many times the Winchester boys have tried to kill each other.  Or, technically, how many times the body of one Winchester, bespelled or possessed or whatever, has tried to kill the other Winchester’s body.  

Sam tried to kill Dean in

  * 1x10 Asylum
  * 2x14 Born Under a Bad sign
  * 4x14 Sex and Violence 



Dean tried to kill Sam in

  * 4x14 Sex and Violence
  * 10x03 Soul Survivor



I know I’m missing some.  Help me out?

[#spn](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn) [#a history of attempted fratricide](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-history-of-attempted-fratricide) [#I think there's something in there about who the hero is/was](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-think-there%27s-something-in-there-about-who-the-hero-is%2Fwas) [#the hero being the one on the trigger end of these very fraught occasions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-hero-being-the-one-on-the-trigger-end-of-these-very-fraught-occasions) [#his internal journey being spotlighted](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/his-internal-journey-being-spotlighted) [#and the role shifting from one to the other around season 4](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-the-role-shifting-from-one-to-the-other-around-season-4) [#But I think I don't remember all the relevant occasions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/But-I-think-I-don%27t-remember-all-the-relevant-occasions) [#and thus cannot test my hypothesis](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-thus-cannot-test-my-hypothesis)

[4/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116389912464/larinah-answered-your-questionhelp-me-count-this)

[larinah](http://larinah.tumblr.com/) answered your [question](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116364574199/help-me-count-this-up-yall): _[Help me count this up, y’all](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116364574199/help-me-count-this-up-yall)_

> Dean threatened to kill Sam in Southern Comfort 8x6

Thank you!

and he would have done it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling kid, so I’m counting it as an attempt.

[#larinah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/larinah) [#i knew i was forgetting something](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i-knew-i-was-forgetting-something)

[4/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116628769744/oranges8hands-answered-your-question-help-me)

[oranges8hands](http://oranges8hands.tumblr.com/) answered your [question](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116364574199/help-me-count-this-up-yall):

_[Help me count this up, y’all](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116364574199/help-me-count-this-up-yall) _

> IDK if you want to count them but the fight scene in 4.21 (22?) - I mean choking was involved -, Dean putting the soul back in could have killed Sam, Sam letting the vamp attack Dean (6.5)

Thank you!

I was thinking, ‘good-faith attempts to kill.’  The soul thing was meant to help, and with the vampire, death wasn’t Plan A, but would have been incidental to Plan A failing.  So they don’t fit my primary criteria, but are illuminating, nonetheless.

I need to go re-watch 4x21 & 4x22.

 

I could’ve sworn Sam tried to kill Dean more than once in the first two seasons, but now I’m like, Asylum, and… drawing a blank.

[#oranges8hands](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oranges8hands) [#a history of attempted fratricide](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-history-of-attempted-fratricide) [#i knew i was forgetting something](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i-knew-i-was-forgetting-something)

* * *

 

[4/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116451102054/john-said-family-was-everything-bobby-said-family)

John said family was everything.

Bobby said family don’t end with blood.

Dean has finally gone beyond his fathers’ sayings, and said that family doesn’t start with blood, either.  That the ‘family’ is the ones who care about  _you_ , not what you can do for them.

.

I wonder if/when Dean is going to notice out loud that every ‘father figure’ he’s ever had has put a weapon in his hand and told him to use it on someone.  

Not just John, but Bobby, Alastair, Castiel, Samuel, Crowley, all of them.

[#spn 10x17 Inside Man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x17-Inside-Man) [#and Dean's done the same to Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-Dean%27s-done-the-same-to-Sam)

 

* * *

 

[4/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116453489639/i-mean-people-realize-that-the-minute-that-say)

My idea of them ‘letting go’ starts with the boys asking Krissy & Josephine to use the bunker as a home base in the episode where Aiden gets fridged.  We find that Castiel is living in the bunker, too, though he routinely spends entire episodes tending beehives or vending at the farmers’ market in Hastings.  Other people, some we’ve already met, some we don’t know, also move in.  Charlie visits regularly.   A community accretes around the bunker.  Dean has to deal with people encroaching on his kitchen.  Sam has to deal with the people re-cataloging the archives accidentally provoking incursions from the Dungeon Dimensions.  MoTW episodes are now sometimes something other than Sam, Dean, and a love triangle set between parallel mirrors.  They spend a season or two populating Winchesterland with a rotating cast of a dozen or two, and in the process the Winchesters demonstrate actual character growth and the CW sets up multiple possible spin-offs.  JA is still in every episode, but since he’s not in every scene he gets to direct more.  

The boys transition from Buffy to Giles, and everyone is happier for it.

[#spn](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn) [#spn endgame](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-endgame)

 

* * *

 

[4/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116475198424/idk-if-this-makes-you-feel-better-but-i-think-if)

I, too, would strongly prefer that they didn’t burn down yet another home base.  After a while it stops looking like a narrative parallel and starts looking like a lack of imagination, you know?

On the other hand, I very much like the idea of Sam rebuilding the broken bits after the catastrophe strikes, and making the bunker the externalization of Sam’s self, in the way that the Impala is the externalization of Dean.  Maybe explore their differing conceptions of ‘home’ - Dean’s is mobile, small and holds only needful things; Sam’s is fixed, large and contains multitudes.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#destroy this bunker to save it?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/destroy-this-bunker-to-save-it%3F)

 

* * *

 

[4/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116540478229/can-dean-really-hear-that-book-he-said-it-twice)

Can Dean really hear that book?

He said it twice, that he could hear the  _Book of the Damned_  calling to him, calling to the mark.  They dropped valuable screen time on having him repeat that in exactly the same tortured syntax, verbatim.  He said it while the book was locked up in its sigil-lined box, too, implying that he could hear it through the wards.

And then Sam did the simplest switch ever, stashed the book back in the lock box, and Dean’s enjoying Miller Time with the gang, apparently happy as a clam and deaf to the book’s siren call.

…leaving me wondering what Dean really heard.

[#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#discontinuity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/discontinuity)

 

* * *

 

[4/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116567588259/all-the-countless-descriptions-in-so-many-books)

cf. Pratchett’s  _Witches Abroad_ , in which a fairy godmother does her best to make fairy tales real.

[#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#Pratchett](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Pratchett) [#Witches Abroad](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Witches-Abroad) [#narrative strictures vs reality](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/narrative-strictures-vs-reality) [#and what does that mean in a scripted show](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-what-does-that-mean-in-a-scripted-show) [#an intentionally structured text](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/an-intentionally-structured-text) [#there is no choice but the author's](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there-is-no-choice-but-the-author%27s) [#but that author is preaching against narrative](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-that-author-is-preaching-against-narrative) [#hummph](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hummph)

 

* * *

 

[4/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116626169139/just-now-occurred-to-me-that-it-would-have-been)

it would have been cooler if the Demon Tablet had been hidden inside a  _Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce_.

[#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#Demon Tablet](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Demon-Tablet) [#Devil's Dictionary](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Devil%27s-Dictionary) [#An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/An-Occurrence-at-Owl-Creek-Bridge) [#The Damned Thing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Damned-Thing) [#just saying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-saying)

 

* * *

 

[4/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116634093848/were-still-waiting-on-a-godric-and-a-helga-yes)

We’re still waiting on a Godric and a Helga, yes?

[#spn season 10](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-10) [#Rowena MacLeod](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Rowena-MacLeod) [#Principal Salazar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Principal-Salazar)

 

* * *

 

[4/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116653733329/barnesbuucky-the-book-s-been-c-a-l-l-i-n-g-out-to)

The flesh of a woman is calling out to him, but if he answers the price will be too high, so he puts her away from himself.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#demonization of the female](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/demonization-of-the-female) [#but also Dean doesn't want to risk losing his angel over some chick](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-also-Dean-doesn%27t-want-to-risk-losing-his-angel-over-some-chick) [#no matter how tempting she is](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-matter-how-tempting-she-is) [#or what benefits she might bestow](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-what-benefits-she-might-bestow)

 

* * *

 

[4/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116661463794/i-think-deans-still-under-the-impression-that)

Also from Dean’s POV, what has Castiel traditionally done as soon as he’s fully powered up?   **Left** , that’s what he’s done, without so much as a ‘sayonara.’  I read that scene as Dean hearing that Castiel is well again (hooray!) and is therefore going to disappear any second (separation anxiety: activate!).

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#never underestimate the effects of Dean's abandonment issues](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/never-underestimate-the-effects-of-Dean%27s-abandonment-issues)

 

* * *

 

[4/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116714584049/2-4-6-8-time-to-transubstantiate)  **2-4-6-8 Time to Transubstantiate**

> 21 And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
> 
> 26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. 29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
> 
> – [Matthew 26:21; 26-29](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kingjamesbibleonline.org%2FMatthew-Chapter-26%2F&t=MjkyMDc4ZThlNDBiZTlmZjc0YTZiNDI5YTljMGQzNDVlNjY5YmYzOCxHV3JqU0JBRA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F116714584049%2F2-4-6-8-time-to-transubstantiate&m=1)
> 
>  

.

> At the time he was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion,  
> he took bread and, giving thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:  
> TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY, WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU.  
> In a similar way, when supper was ended, he took the chalice and, once more giving thanks, he gave it to his disciples, saying:  
> TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT, FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT, WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.  
> – [New English Catholic Mass](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.catholicbridge.com%2Fcatholic%2Fcatholic_mass_full_text.php&t=NmRhZTZlY2IyNzVmZGM5ZGEwN2FiZTNiM2YzMjIxZmI2Y2RmYzAzNixHV3JqU0JBRA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F116714584049%2F2-4-6-8-time-to-transubstantiate&m=1)

.

Couple of things to note:

** Christ knew full well that among his companions were those who would betray and deny him.  He knew all of them well, what they wanted and how they’d likely go about getting it.  He knew what they’d do before they did.  Similarly, Dean was there for seasons 3 and 4; he knows how Sam can get.  Dean was ringside for the fallout of Castiel’s more spectacular fuckups, too.  Just as Sam will not be shocked when Dean starts trying to kill him again, I do not expect that Dean will be particularly astonished when he finds out that Sam and Castiel have gotten up to shit behind his back.  (The scope Dean may find surprising, but not the fact of it.)

** In the [Eucharist](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.etymonline.com%2Findex.php%3Fterm%3DEucharist&t=NGYxMDNkNGUzMzJmMzE0MjAwNDdiN2ZkNDdmM2E1NTIzMjYxNWM1ZSxHV3JqU0JBRA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F116714584049%2F2-4-6-8-time-to-transubstantiate&m=1), the Catholic Mass accomplishes  _transubstantiation_.  A long-ago professor explained transubstantiation thus: the  **accident** (more or less equivalent to the body)  **of the wine**  stays wine, while the  **substance** (more or less equivalent to the soul)  **of the wine**  becomes that of the Blood of Christ.  The soul changes, the body doesn’t; so in every physical sense it still seems to be bread and wine, but it’s really (soul-wise) the body and blood of Christ.   _This is a vast misrepresentation of Aristotle and the theological concepts actually involved_ , the prof said,  _but I’m trying to explain the Reformation to people who’ve never been to church at all and we need to move on_.  Seemed like a workable shortcut to me.  James Novak has, in this sense, transubstantiated into the angel Castiel.  The physical form is the same; the soul and consciousness have changed.  Dean Winchester is in the process of transubstantiating into a demon: same physical form and consciousness, different quality of soul.  

.

So, about that pizza party.

Instead of the Seder, a post-hunt family meal.  It is unusual for  _this_ family to get a chance to sit down and enjoy a meal at home together, and it is even more unusual for them to avail themselves of that opportunity.  But, for once, they did just that.  Most of them looked happy about it, too.  (Someone who’s actually Jewish should speak to the Seder part.)  

For bread, pizza.  Pizza is, technically, pie - and you are what you eat.  For all Dean has been experimenting with croissookies and gazing covetously upon various cakes, he’s still been a pie-man all his life.   Dean brought these pizzas to the feast, making him the Pizza Man, the man-of-pizza (pie).  This is his flesh, this is his body.

For wine, beer.  Kingdom Beer: A Taste of Heaven.  As others have pointed out, it’s marvelously edited such that Castiel morphs into the bottle of Kingdom that Dean opens and drinks of, and the trademark on the bottle is [angels holding up a crown](http://trai-all.tumblr.com/post/116600897643/defilerwyrm-ibelieveinthelittletreetopper).  cf. the Paternoster - 

> Our father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name  
> Thy kingdom come thy will be done  
> On Earth as it is in Heaven  
> Give us this day our daily bread  
> And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us  
> And lead us not into temptation  
> But deliver us from evil  
> For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen

 

[#Vatican Rag](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Vatican-Rag) [#KJV](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/KJV) [#Mt26:26-29](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mt26%3A26-29) [#New English Catholic Mass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/New-English-Catholic-Mass) [#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#Paternoster](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Paternoster)

[4/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116744388609/2-4-6-8-time-to-transubstantiate)

reblogging myself to add:

> 29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

Dean is the pizza, Castiel is the beer, and they’re not going to be together until after at least one of them has died again.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned)

 

* * *

 

[4/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117067773844/but-if-the-actor-would-be-uncomfortable-with-it)

I’m bewildered by the original question.  

Who are we to tell an actor what to do?  No one.  The production company employs entire departments to do that already.  

And… if the actor in question is “uncomfortable with it,” well, that actor is neither stupid nor helpless, but a grown adult who is at this point in an excellent negotiating position and who presumably employs competent representation.  Anything he’s actually uncomfortable doing is  **already** forbidden by his contract and the writers are  **already** writing around.  Fans wishing and hoping will do precisely jack shit to compel him - or the writers, or the network - to do anything they don’t want to.

I mean, I know it’s a fanfic staple, but I have a hard time reconciling  _actual_ Jensen Ackles with this vision of him as a distressed damsel, dependent on the condescending kindness of strangers to defend him from the depredations of the cold, cruel world.

[#apparently on the third drink I turn to alliteration](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/apparently-on-the-third-drink-I-turn-to-alliteration)

 

* * *

 

[4/23/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117154585219/sandraugiga-thewidowwinchester-and-rowenas)

Sam considered sleeping with Lilith, so I’m not sure we should rule anything out.

[#spn 4x18 the monster at the end of this book](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x18-the-monster-at-the-end-of-this-book) [#spn 10x19 The Werther Project](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x19-The-Werther-Project)

 

* * *

 

[4/23/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117227270524/sorka42-larinah)

When Susie was knocking out that drywall, the tool in her hands was a sledgehammer, but in the shots from the other side of the wall it looked like an ax blade coming through.  Or so I was thinking as I watched.  

Anyone have a clue why Susie started knocking out that section of drywall instead of starting the laundry?  And not, Castiel-mirror knocking down the wall between Sam and bad shit - that part makes sense to me - but an in-story in-character reason for Susie to pick a piece of wall to demolish before dinner?  Because I didn’t see one.  

Why was there a water heater in the walled-off part of the basement?  (That one, I don’t get either the practical or symbolic purpose.)  Did the MoL install a second one after they put in that wall?  Because even back in the seventies, you don’t buy a house without an inspection and the inspector is going to check the water heater and send up big red flags if it’s not accessible to workmen.

And speaking of that wall - weak effort at ‘burying’ a horribly dangerous object.  Should have been cement or brick, or perhaps a few layers of both.

[littlehollyleaf](http://littlehollyleaf.tumblr.com/post/117193876562):  ( **I assumed Susie was overcome by a sudden magic influence that had been slowly seeping through the wall from the box?**  or she could have been doing it out of some weird thought of revenge against her brother and mother for not letting her watch her show? idk :p)

(also maybe the attempt at ‘burying’ the box was weak because the MoL got wiped out while they were still in the process? I can’t remember the dates of events to know if the timing fits with that possibility though)

[butterflydm](http://butterflydm.tumblr.com/post/117194111001): This was my assumption as well. The box was calling to her – maybe because she was feeling intense emotions? – like how the BotD has been calling to people. Since we’d just had an episode about a strong magical object calling out to be used, I didn’t even blink at this, tbh.

 

[ibelieveinthelittletreetopper](http://ibelieveinthelittletreetopper.tumblr.com/post/117194281558): According to Bobo on twitter she was just frustrated and the wall was meant to come down anyway so she just started smashing, but it could be read as above as well.

 

[larinah](http://larinah.tumblr.com/post/117194747777): That’s kind of interesting.  Because if Suzie hadn’t knocked down the wall and tried the box, it seems pretty certain someone else would have.  (Like her aunt did later.)  So she got stuck with the burden because she was the first one to it due to her somewhat rash (but understandable) actions.

 

[sorka42](http://sorka42.tumblr.com/post/117197221551): The wall was going to come down. Wasn’t her father on the phone talking about renovations to the basement? There were tools down there and marks on the wall indicating that it was going to get taken down. I figured she decided to do it because she was frustrated that her brother was allowed to goof off and listen to his records while she was expected to do chores. 

It really didn’t matter who touched the box, because someone was going to take that wall down soon anyway.

[welkinalauda](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117227270524/sorka42-larinah): Just re-watched, and, damn, you’re exactly right.  Mom says the workmen have left for the day.  Brother is silently smug about how Susie is of the congenital servant class and he’s not.   Dad says the place is a fixer.   Susie goes down and dumps the laundry.  (There’s a water heater visible over her shoulder as she stands in front of the washing machine.)  She spots the manly tools and the manly work to be done.  Mom yells ‘don’t take all day down there,’ and Susie swings the hammer at the X on the wall.

So our in-story in-character reason is…  **feminism**.  Betty Friedan gave that poor girl ideas above her station.  If little Susie had done as she was told - started the laundry and gone right back upstairs - odds on she’d have died within the week.  But she disobeyed her superiors, striking (what she doubtless thought was) a blow against gendered injustice, and for her rebellion she got to spend the next forty-two years knowing she’d loosed the thing that killed her entire family.  Her atonement was to trap herself in the house where they all died, trying to keep others away.

And in forty-two years, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to her to teach herself bricklaying.  Or figure out how to mix and pour cement.  Or shove something heavier than a stack of chairs in front of that hole in the drywall.

She’d learned her lesson.  That sort of thing is man’s work.  Not for her.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x19 The Werther Project](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x19-The-Werther-Project) [#authoritarianism on parade](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/authoritarianism-on-parade) [#stay on the path](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/stay-on-the-path) [#do as you're told](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/do-as-you%27re-told) [#wear the straitjacket](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/wear-the-straitjacket) [#drink the straitjacket](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/drink-the-straitjacket) [#be who they tell you to be](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/be-who-they-tell-you-to-be) [#compliance brings death](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/compliance-brings-death) [#but rebellion brings only sorrow](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-rebellion-brings-only-sorrow)

 

* * *

 

[4/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117239519289/dean-knows-he-wont-go-to-purgatory-when-he-dies)

Dean knows he won’t go to Purgatory when he dies, is the thing.  

If he was assured of Purgatory, Dean would string out his time on Earth as long as he could.  Then, when the time came, he’d tell Sam and Castiel to stop by and see him when they got the chance, and fall on his blade.  Dean would get to spend eternity in his happy place killing monsters with his buddy.  His family could come take extended monster-killing vacations, then head back to Heaven.  Sam and/or Castiel might decide to stay with Dean, eventually.  Or they’d  find a way to sneak Dean past the Pearly Gates, eventually.  In all cases: long-term good outcome.

But he  _isn’t_  bound for Purgatory.  As long as Dean’s got Lucifer’s mark on him, he’s going to Hell… and then odds-on he’s coming back to Earth in the same body with a soul of smoke.  Since he has near certain knowledge that that will be the outcome of his death, suicide can hold no real temptation.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x19 The Werther Project](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x19-The-Werther-Project) [#tw suicide](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tw-suicide)

 

* * *

 

[4/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117280267650/mishabethyname-did-the-men-of-letters-span-the)

The Men of Letter strike me as quintessentially colonialist types.  The sort who’d collect everyone else’s valuables at gunpoint and ship the booty off to archives on the other side of the world in the name of ‘safekeeping.’

I imagine a Man of Letters in a pale linen suit, sitting every day in the salon at the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok with a cool drink in his hand, collecting gossip and folktales and trinkets, sending everything back to HQ via secure channels.  I imagine that after he disappeared in 1958, odd occurrences were reported in and near his old rooms.  A rather rough backcountry guide who’d been known to work for the missing man came for his effects some weeks later, and the little strangenesses stopped.

By the time 1959 rolled around, people had started taking their gossip and folktales and trinkets to a Chinese merchant with a shop in Silom.

[#spn men of letters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-men-of-letters) [#colonialism](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/colonialism) [#decaying empires](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/decaying-empires) [#things fall apart](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/things-fall-apart) [#the center cannot hold](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-center-cannot-hold)

 

* * *

 

[4/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117465364234/i-dont-know-if-dean-will-be-cured-by-the-end-of)

Currently known to be in the cage are Lucifer, Michael, and Adam’s body.  If someone opens the cage, I figure Michael will walk out using the vessel he’s already got consent to use.  So no matter what shape Adam’s soul is in, or whether it’s even in there, Michael-wearing-Adam will be able to act and function.  (And, I hope, Michael will eventually conduct Adam’s soul to Heaven if it’s not already there.)

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation) [#the cage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-cage) [#Michael & Lucifer](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Michael-%26-Lucifer) [#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location)

 

* * *

 

[4/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117584966214/yarnyfan-mittensmorgul-wileea-something)

Yes, exactly - cars like that, you see them on the road when they’re driving to the car show, and then again when they’re driving back from the car show.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they got pulled over just so the cop could fanboy about the vehicle.  Not stealthy.

Be fun to find out that Dean’s been whiling away his spare hours in the garage, finding all manner of charms and wards and weapons hidden in those old things, stripping out the good stuff to install on Baby.

They should be parking Baby indoors.

I do kind of wonder why Sam doesn’t legally acquire a grey 10-year-old Civic to drive everywhere.  It’d be almost invisible.  

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#bunker garage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bunker-garage) [#car talk](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/car-talk)

 

* * *

 

[4/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117612471844/deathbycoldopen-tous-les-coups)

What’s bothersome, as [tous-les-coups](http://tous-les-coups.tumblr.com/post/117355273131/last-episode-bothered-me-collateral-damage-and) said, is that Sam (and Dean, and the writers) are telling themselves that Susie was collateral damage of Sam’s  **great holy quest** , when Susie was actually collateral damage of Sam’s  **pointlessly sloppy choice of tactics**.  

The writers have done this before, where they write the boys so stupid and careless that a side character dies of their incompetence.  And then the post-mortem, if there is a post-mortem, is all about the boys’ intentions and missions and abstract big-picture bullshit.  Never, “WTF were you thinking, trying to pick a front door lock in the middle of the day?  You know better than that.”  

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#carrying the idiot ball](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/carrying-the-idiot-ball) [#killing side characters with the idiot ball](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/killing-side-characters-with-the-idiot-ball)

 

* * *

 

[4/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117758807974/because-its-her-birthday)  **Because it’s her birthday**

They brought her gifts.  Is “We Three Kings” too far a stretch, here?

  * Sam telling her how to scam a credit card on her own was the gold.
  * Dean’s angel info (and letting her keep the angel sword) was frankincense.  “Incense owns a deity nigh; prayer and praising, all men raising; worship him God on high” = angelic stuff.  Maybe?
  * Castiel’s GrumpyCat was myrrh.  “It’s bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering doom.”



And then they packed her off on a  ~~donkey into Egypt~~  cab to South Dakota.

.

Nice how they held off on giving her those gifts until *after* she was 18, and legally able to work (and support herself) without a guardian’s signature.  

.

I thought Ronnie looked familiar!  That’s Dean & Lisa’s old neighbor.  The one who ran afoul of the fast djinni.

.

Kind of wish they’d resisted the temptation to show us Jimmy and Amelia’s final reunion.  Partly because I do not watch this show for neat endings all tied up in a bow, but more because they re-cast the role.  I guess I was more attached to Wynn Everett than I realized?  Every time they did one of those reunion scenes, I was all,  _that’s the wrong wife, why are you embracing a stranger like that, Jimmy that’s not **her** , wrong bad no_.  

.

Claire & Dean had better do the gopher dance together when next they meet.  I’m just saying.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voCOvUzbhm0](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvoCOvUzbhm0&t=ZDY2ZDc3ODBmNDM1YmJjOTg4MjIxOTVkM2I0ZTU4ODdkYzI2OWU1ZixqTjRPbDF2Yw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F117758807974%2Fbecause-its-her-birthday&m=1)

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x20 Angel Heart](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x20-Angel-Heart) [#We Three Kings](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/We-Three-Kings) [#John Henry Hopkins Jr.](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-Henry-Hopkins-Jr.) [#Mt 2:11](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mt-2%3A11) [#Mt 2:14](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mt-2%3A14) [#Caddyshack](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Caddyshack) [#I'm All Right](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-All-Right) [#and they claim to be fine](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-they-claim-to-be-fine)

 

* * *

 

[4/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117760720729/trai-all-iwatchthepie-dean-telling-claire)

I think Dean saying Jimmy was a hero is Dean recalling when he thought of his own father a hero (2x12, 3x08).  When Dean was Claire’s age, he took a lot of comfort from telling himself that his dad was abandoning him for a really good cause.  It made being abandoned into something noble, rather than a pointless hardship.  I figure Dean figured that what helped him at that age would help Claire.

That conversation with Castiel in which Dean was urging him to cut Claire loose, same thing.  Dean’s thinking how much easier 18 would have been for him if he’d been unencumbered, and giving advice about Claire based on what would have been best for Dean.

Except, as many have pointed out, Dean as a teenager had a whole lot of training in a whole lot of skills Claire has no clue about, and also, this is a patriarchy.  Which makes Dean’s (the writers’) insistence on pretending the dangers of homelessness have no gendered component kind of appalling.

Dean’s identifying with Claire, which is nice in its way.  But in doing so he’s ignoring key differences, up to and including how she’s just  _not him_. 

[#spn 10x20 Angel Heart](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x20-Angel-Heart) [#Claire Novak](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Claire-Novak) [#Dean Winchester](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-Winchester) [#not actually a mirror](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-actually-a-mirror)

 

 

 

 


	5. May

[5/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/117919752764/a-theory-of-creation)  **A theory of creation**

 

God created angels.

What with one thing and another, aeons pass.

God decided he wanted to go do something else for a while, but he was all that kept the angels alive, and he couldn’t just leave them to starve.

God created human beings.  

God told his angels to treat human beings with respect, because - 

“Oh, heck, no,” Lucifer said.  “I’m not bowing to them.”  Everyone got all upset and everything kept escalating until there was war in Heaven.  God named Joshua head gardener and taught him how to customize a bonsai happy place to house each human soul.  God set Michael in charge of the armies of Heaven.  

God got out of Dodge.  

Eventually Michael got Lucifer locked up.  Lucifer’s cage became the nucleus around which Hell accreted.

God never did finish the speech Lucifer interrupted, which was about how angels should treat human beings with respect because human souls (designed to exude energy on just the right wavelengths to nourish angels) were going to be powering Heaven from now on, and respect for your food supply leads to better resource management.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn cosmology](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-cosmology) [#spn creation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-creation)

 

* * *

[5/3/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118096346434/thegeekiary-after-the-ill-fated-attempt-at)

 

[justanotheridijiton](https://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/118094480559/thegeekiary-after-the-ill-fated-attempt-at)'s tags: [#remember when rhodes tweeted](https://tumblr.com/tagged/remember-when-rhodes-tweeted)[#the cw casting said she was too old to be seen](https://tumblr.com/tagged/the-cw-casting-said-she-was-too-old-to-be-seen)[#same day as when pedowitz spoke at winter 15 tca](https://tumblr.com/tagged/same-day-as-when-pedowitz-spoke-at-winter-15-tca)[#look at the shows on the cw](https://tumblr.com/tagged/look-at-the-shows-on-the-cw)[#spn is a leftover from the wb](https://tumblr.com/tagged/spn-is-a-leftover-from-the-wb)[#30 is old on a cw show](https://tumblr.com/tagged/30-is-old-on-a-cw-show)[#there’s also a mythology problem](https://tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-also-a-mythology-problem)[#it has to be monsters or witches](https://tumblr.com/tagged/it-has-to-be-monsters-or-witches)[#angels and demons](https://tumblr.com/tagged/angels-and-demons)[#tie too tightly into spn](https://tumblr.com/tagged/tie-too-tightly-into-spn)[#what if the gates below closed](https://tumblr.com/tagged/what-if-the-gates-below-closed)[#or above](https://tumblr.com/tagged/or-above)[#welp there goes the plot](https://tumblr.com/tagged/welp-there-goes-the-plot)[#so…monsters or witches](https://tumblr.com/tagged/so...monsters-or-witches)[#spn adjacent](https://tumblr.com/tagged/spn-adjacent)[#wayward daughters](https://tumblr.com/tagged/wayward-daughters)[#needs proof nielsen live + same day will watch](https://tumblr.com/tagged/needs-proof-nielsen-live-%2B-same-day-will-watch)[#a petition isn’t going to do that](https://tumblr.com/tagged/a-petition-isn%27t-going-to-do-that)[#negativity for ts](https://tumblr.com/tagged/negativity-for-ts)[#for tags](https://tumblr.com/tagged/for-tags)[#the business of show](https://tumblr.com/tagged/the-business-of-show)

The Grand Coven would make an excellent source of young (looking) witches.  And they’ll be “naturals,” too, so no worries from gates closing.

Jesse the cambion might work as an antagonist as well.

[#I worry that the people with the power to decide](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-worry-that-the-people-with-the-power-to-decide) [#don't want to let people outside their club make decisions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-want-to-let-people-outside-their-club-make-decisions) [#even if they're good decisions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/even-if-they%27re-good-decisions) [#Can't look like they're being led around by a bunch of fangirls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Can%27t-look-like-they%27re-being-led-around-by-a-bunch-of-fangirls) [#So unless someone inside the club pops up to say](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/So-unless-someone-inside-the-club-pops-up-to-say) [#'I have successfully manipulated the fans into supporting my spinoff idea! I win!'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27I-have-successfully-manipulated-the-fans-into-supporting-my-spinoff-idea%21-I-win%21%27) [#I don't think this will happen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-think-this-will-happen) [#Hope I'm wrong](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hope-I%27m-wrong)

 

* * *

 

[5/4/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118177376464/wild-speculation-time)

Can an empty vessel give consent?  

‘Cause they mentioned Adam, they opened Pandora’s Box, there’s episodes coming up called The Prisoner and Brother’s Keeper - I think there’s a good possibility they close the season by opening the Cage.  

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation)

 

* * *

 [5/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118206332704/so-say-the-network-orders-13-episodes-as-a)

So, say, the network orders 13 episodes as a mid-season replacement.

We spend the season rotating through episodes focused on different groups of characters.

Three episodes with the Wayward Daughters crew.

Three episodes following Krissy, Josephine and Aiden on their travels around the Midwest.  This should include a stop at the bunker, preferably when the Winchesters aren’t home.

Three episodes with Kevin and Adam (resurrected by divers plot devices) who are rooming together at Purdue, trying to go back to the lives they had before while dealing with PTSD, monster outbreaks, and coed hijinks.

Three episodes of stand-alones with various side characters (Charlie, Missouri, Tracy Bell?  Tamara, who didn’t let herself get frozen in place but has a new husband and more kids and still hunts a little on the side?  Cassie and her child with Dean who’s also an angelic vessel?)

And a finale, in which all these people and their plot threads come together to resolve the season-long narrative arc and fridge Aiden.  

.

Never, ever going to happen - it’s too far off formula, execs think the audience is incapable of following rotating casts in the same time slot, and there’s  _way_ too many icky girls - but I think it’d be fun.

[#spn spinoff idea](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-spinoff-idea)

 

 

* * *

[5/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118259933704/justanotheridijiton-10x21-set-appreciation-x)

Is the leatherette armchair meant to be blue or green?  Is that a truncated green sofa?

[#I really really hate this motel room](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-really-really-hate-this-motel-room) [#the minty-aqua with the obtrusive pink](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-minty-aqua-with-the-obtrusive-pink) [#outdoor siding halfway up the walls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/outdoor-siding-halfway-up-the-walls) [#the ornate bedsteads against the outdoor siding](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-ornate-bedsteads-against-the-outdoor-siding) [#matador paintings at all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/matador-paintings-at-all) [#some things even symbolical intent cannot excuse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/some-things-even-symbolical-intent-cannot-excuse)

 

 

* * *

 

comment on larinah, [5/3/15](http://larinah.tumblr.com/post/118075513587/ive-got-to-ask-because-this-is-one-of-those)

 

But the SPN Heaven isn’t run for the benefit of human souls, any more than a feed lot is run for the benefit of cattle. I think it’s supposed to be kind of creepy to us cows. But (like butterflydm said) it’s still the best of the available options.

 

[5/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118267096249/hannahs-in-her-heaven-and-alls-right-with-the)

I probably shouldn’t have used the feedlot metaphor - my actual hypothesis is more like, human souls are the geese who lay the golden eggs, and angels live off the eggs, rather than the geese.  I figure Heaven is set up with all the individual pens to keep each goose contentedly laying at maximum output.  If they let the souls run around free, some would squabble and peck at each other - not even because humans are necessarily violent, but because most of us spend our lives in competition for resources and not everyone can set aside the habits of a lifetime.  And, as Balthazar said, souls have a tendency to explode.  So rather than endlessly riding herd on their flock, the angels lock everyone in isolation in their own happy place.  It’s all very efficient.

I think the “bowing down” was the first part of God instructing the angels in stewardship.  Treat your resources well, with respect, and everything stays good.  But Lucifer interrupted the lecture to express his contempt for us silly, worthless geese, and whatever else God meant to say was lost in the fighting.

About Hell, and the souls there: as far as I can tell, in the SPN-verse angels, angels, pagan gods, and miscellaneous other power players are  **people**.  Human souls aren’t people, but livestock.  Geese.  Human souls are  **chattel**.  They are for the most part explicitly owned, and strays belong to whoever bothers to capture them.  The souls in Heaven belong the to angelic collective.  The souls in Hell, from what I can tell, belong to Lucifer.  Lucifer has the souls he owns torture and twist each other into smoke-monsters because he hated humans on sight, and also because he thinks it’s humanity’s fault he’s trapped in a cage and his Daddy left him.  It’s in  _Lucifer’s_ name that the crossroads demons buy souls, not Lilith or Crowley or any other demon.  Crowley bidding his own soul is a no-go because that soul is Lucifer’s property, and thus isn’t Crowley’s to bid.

(I’ve got another theory, about how the angels who devised the cage for Lucifer set it up so the power emanating to Lucifer from the souls he owns are what powers the bars of the cage, so the more souls he has, the more securely he is held.  Which makes Lucifer hate humans even more.  Also, the devisers of the cage made Lilith-the-first-demon into a structural keystone, which is why killing her set him free.  this lacks for much in the way of explicit canonical support, but I still like it a lot.)

The angels who are trying to put humans first strike me as a conservation metaphor - trying to treat their resources better.  

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#metaphysics and stewardship](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/metaphysics-and-stewardship) [#Lucifer = the Koch Brothers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lucifer-%3D-the-Koch-Brothers) [#Hannah = Teddy Roosevelt](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hannah-%3D-Teddy-Roosevelt)

 

* * *

 

[5/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118290190534/the-idea-of-cas-possessing-kid-claire-gives-me-a) [Castiel-in-Claire mimicking little girl Lilith]

This is awesome.

[#spn au](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-au) [#I lovet his idea with a great strong love](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-lovet-his-idea-with-a-great-strong-love) [#make for a very confused Dean](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/make-for-a-very-confused-Dean) [#as he tries to reconcile his feelings about an angel in the body of a hot guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-he-tries-to-reconcile-his-feelings-about-an-angel-in-the-body-of-a-hot-guy) [#with his feelings for the same angel in the body of a grade school girl](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-his-feelings-for-the-same-angel-in-the-body-of-a-grade-school-girl) [#and oh the wank of the fans](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-oh-the-wank-of-the-fans)

 

* * *

 

[5/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118292805284/venusdebotticelli-libbyroseitm-well-crap-i)

yes, so much this.

Dean’s half-past thirty and still alive, and he’s starting to catch on that his life doesn’t have to be black and white.  His relationships don’t have to be 24/7 constant contact punctuated with dramatic gestures (with Sam) and long stretches of radio silence punctuated with dramatic gestures (everyone else).  That was his father’s way, and Dean’s older now than his father was when John chose that path.  

Dean is seeing that there’s a middle road, that leads to middle age, and maybe old age, and he’s trying to set his feet on that path.

Sam, though - he’s still stampeding himself with ‘gotta fix this now.’  It’s all emergent and acute to him, and he has no conceptual framework for dealing with Dean managing a chronic condition. 

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#our boys are finally growing up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/our-boys-are-finally-growing-up)

 

* * *

[5/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118424173459/i-choose-to-believe-that-charlies-death-is-a)

I choose to believe that Charlie’s death is a fake-out.  I should do a close read of the episode in search of support for that thesis, but a) I’m still kind of pissed, and b) they had this episode written by Buckleming, so any “clues” are going to be witless and wrong-headed and only serve to annoy me further.

But.  Other writers for spn have done their best to pin an “I ATE’NT DEAD” note to the corpse, and I’m going to go ahead and believe  _them_.  For now.

[#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty)

 

* * *

 

[5/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118424321359/i-figure-the-stynes-connect-somehow-to-doc-benton)

I figure the Stynes connect somehow to Doc Benton.  (And also Pratchett-type Igors.)  But is Doc Benton a rogue member of the clan, or someone who stole their methods, or a parallel developer?  More info needed.

[That spelling gets more annoying the more times I type it.  Not only is ‘Styne’ a decidedly non-intuitive spelling for German speakers, the Y chromosome wasn’t even named until 1905, and putting a Y in every possible name didn’t get trendy until much later in the century.  Do not try to tell me that army of killer Ken dolls had a marketing manager in 1818 who was 200 years ahead of the curve.]

They fridged Doc Benton, literally.  I’m trying to think of what they can do about a whole clan of Doc Bentons.  Right now, I’m going with decommissioned missile silo + a whole lot of cement.

[#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#spn 3x15 Time Is on My Side](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x15-Time-Is-on-My-Side)

 

* * *

 

[5/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118424608974/so-they-sat-charlie-in-front-of-a-damp)

So they sat Charlie in front of a damp vulva-shaped opening (marked “Brothers”), in the company of bound Rowena, to try and decode the inscribed flesh of a woman on her laptop.  Uh-huh.

[A codex has fuck-all to do with encryption.  A fact Felicia Day surely knows, given that she named her own character in  _The Guild_  Codex.  She must have found some of that dialog excruciating.]

But apparently Charlie’s brain could not function with all that distracting femaleness going on?  and had to go find a more generic, less gendered setting to successfully complete intellectual work?  I reiterate my insistence that this better be a damn fake-out.

[#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#misogyny on parade](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/misogyny-on-parade) [#maybe they meant her to be making puns](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/maybe-they-meant-her-to-be-making-puns) [#but the delivery was wrong for that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-the-delivery-was-wrong-for-that)

 

* * *

 

[5/9/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118543346769/any-sort-of-fondness-i-had-for-the-boys-went-righthttp://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118543346769/any-sort-of-fondness-i-had-for-the-boys-went-right)

Yep, 8x23 was where they held up the big sign that read, “THE WINCHESTERS HAVE LOST THE PLOT.”

 

> SAM: Look at him. Look at him! Look how close we are! Other people will die if I don’t finish this!
> 
> DEAN: Think about it. Think about what we know, huh? Pulling souls from hell, curing demons, hell, ganking a Hellhound! We have enough knowledge on our side to turn the tide here. But **I can’t do it without you**.
> 
> SAM:  **You can barely do it with me. I mean, you think I screw up everything I try. You think I need a chaperone, remember?**
> 
> DEAN: Come on, man. That’s not what I meant.
> 
> SAM: No, it’s exactly what you meant.  **You want to know what I confessed in there? What my greatest sin was? It was how many times I let you down. I can’t do that again.**
> 
> DEAN: Sam –
> 
> SAM: [beginning to cry]  **What happens when you’ve decided I can’t be trusted again?**  I mean,  **who are you gonna turn to next time instead of me**? Another angel, another – another vampire?  **Do you have any idea what it feels like**  to watch your brother just –
> 
> DEAN: Hold on, hold on! You seriously think that? Because none of it – none of it – is true. Listen, man, I know we’ve had our disagreements, okay? Hell, I know I’ve said some junk that set you back on your heels. But, Sammy…come on. I killed Benny to save you. **I’m willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches that killed mom walk because of you**. Don’t you dare think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you! It has never been like that, ever! I need you to see that. I’m begging you.
> 
> SAM: How do I stop?: [SAM squeezes his hand as blood drips out onto the floor the orange glow is a little brighter but then starts to fade.]
> 
> DEAN: Just let it go.
> 
> SAM: I can’t.: It’s in me, Dean. You don’t know what this feels like.: [DEAN wraps a bandanna around Sam’s cut.]
> 
> DEAN: Hey, listen, we will figure it out, okay, just like we always do. Come on.
> 
> [DEAN grabs SAM and pulls him in for a tight hug.]
> 
> DEAN: Come on. Let it go, okay? Let it go, brother.
> 
> [The orange glow in SAMS arms starts to fade. SAM backs away from Dean to look at his arms as the orange glow fades.]
> 
> SAM: Hey, Dean.
> 
> DEAN: See?

[[Supernatural Wiki transcript](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D8.23_Sacrifice_%28transcript%29&t=NjA3ZTdjOWE2Nzk2M2EzZWIwMzY0NmFhZDIzZTYxY2Y2ZGUyYmVmNCxhc3JxdzliWQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F118543346769%2Fany-sort-of-fondness-i-had-for-the-boys-went-right&m=1); bolds mine]

Sam was willing to die here,  **not** because closing off Hell was an objective worth the sacrifice - that barely came up in the conversation - but because he was feeling rejected by his big brother.  Because Dean said some mean shit when they were arguing and made some friends who weren’t Sam.  (And yes, Sam, Dean knows  _exactly_ how it feels when your brother does that.)  

Dean was insisting that they give up on the goal they’ve been chasing all year in order to gain nothing more consequential than preventing a temporary separation from his brother.  Dean was choosing to let untold number of people endure the tortures he endured, and those people aren’t going to get angelic rescue.  Let’s not forget: Sam & Dean know  _for a fact_  that death is not the end.  They’ve toured Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and the veil.  They know spells and tricks and back doors to get in and out of and around all of them.  Death may part them, but they know how to meet up later.  And if there’s a delay in their reunion, they know ways for the living to talk to the dead.

That scene was our woobies making a joint decision that they would rather let other people be damned to Hell than be parted from each other for a while.

I remember watching that episode and saying “WTF?” when Sam went down the path of whiny self-pity, because I was expecting 

 

> Dean: This will kill you!
> 
> Sam: It is a far, far better thing [extended self-sacrifice remix]
> 
> Dean: I know.  I just wanted to see you off properly this time.  Did I ever tell you you’re my hero?
> 
> Sam: Back at ya.  Farewell!
> 
> Dean: See you on the other side!  [*mourns*]
> 
> writers: *clever stratagem to make Sam un-dead*

They used to be heroic, even with the ridiculous collateral damage body count, because they were taking big risks and making  big sacrifices for the greater good.  These days?  They’re hunting out of habit rather than conviction, and any good they’re doing is strictly coincidental.

 [#spn 8x23 Sacrifice](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-8x23-Sacrifice)[#heroes with heads of clay](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/heroes-with-heads-of-clay)

 

* * *

 

 

[5/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118646888634/apocalypse-patisserie-winjennster)

I’m wondering if he didn’t mean that Dean dies.  

Dean dies and the MoC resurrects his corpse - soulless, this time.  We start next season with Dean’s soul in Heaven, conspiring with Ash, Bobby, and Charlie on how to redecorate the place.  Sam and Castiel have to keep the Murder-Weeble version of Dean in check while trying to get Dean’s soul back in his body.  Sam and Castiel succeed in 11x02.  In 11x03 Dean delivers a very manly version of Buffy’s ‘Heaven was better’ speech from BtVS 6x03, and they all go back to business as usual, having learned nothing.

It could work.  

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation)

 

* * *

 

[5/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118703986144/justanotheridijiton-prairiedusting)

[#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#what’s up with the patchwork?](https://tumblr.com/tagged/what%27s-up-with-the-patchwork%3F)

She was wearing Protective Plaid, and here’s this Protective Plaid curtain - I want to count those in the “she’s not dead, but resting” column.  But there have been an awful lot of discouraging words in the past few days on that subject…

There’s also this:

_Scraps, the Patchwork Girl of Oz, was animated using Dr. Pipt’s Powder of Life.  She is shown here with her travelling companion, Ojo the Unlucky._

[#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in) [#more Oz](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-Oz) [#animated patchwork and protective plaid](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/animated-patchwork-and-protective-plaid)

 

* * *

 

[5/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118759625844/crack-thought)

Double-crack thought: we never saw Cain’s body.  

Maybe he’s not dead.

[#Cain: one-armed man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Cain%3A-one-armed-man) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in)

 

* * *

 

[5/11/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118762406219/may-i-direct-everybodys-attention-to-a-small)

I kind of want it to be Sam destroying the bunker.  

Partly so it’s Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star.  [I’ve got a mass of shower-thoughts in re: our woobies as the scions of dynastic legacies.  Hunting House of Campbell + Men of Letters = Royal House of Naboo + Jedi?  Or other way ‘round, and the Campbells are the Jedi?  Clarity is not happening; ideas welcome.]

Partly because it’d make a nice parallel to the start of season 2 - some demon hurt the Impala, then Dean hurt her worse, then Dean built her back to cherry and she was forever after  **Dean’s**.  Some bad guy should start the process, but I want Sam to finish breaking the bunker, then build it back, making it  **Sam’s**.  Sam’s spent enough time metaphorically sleeping on his brother’s couch.  He should make his own space already.

[#spn 1x22 Devil's Trap](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-1x22-Devil%27s-Trap) [#spn 2x02 Everbody Loves a Clown](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x02-Everbody-Loves-a-Clown) [#spn/star wars parallels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn%2Fstar-wars-parallels) [#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation)

 

* * *

 

[5/13/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118866954949/filleretive-justanotheridijiton-3x15)

Like maybe that last thing she sent before she smashed the laptop was her uploading herself into the web?

[#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in) [#like in the Gibson X-Files episode](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/like-in-the-Gibson-X-Files-episode)

 

* * *

 

[5/13/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118929018489/the-prisoner-10x22-well-yes-sam-i-do)

 

> The Prisoner | [10x22](http://yaelstiel.tumblr.com/tagged/g1022)

Well, yes, Sam, I do think you’ll forgive yourself eventually.  

Because of the time - it was two, three years ago?  Dean was trying to bond over feeling eternal guilt, and Sam said something like, nope, I’ve done my penance, not going to keep beating myself up.  [ **Cannot** remember which episode - anyone know?]

Which is a fairly healthy way to cope, by itself.  But also, in memoriam Cindy McLellan, it’s precedent indicating that if he’s made to endure sufficient torments afterward, Sam will absolve himself anything.

[#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#spn 4x22 Lucifer Rising](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x22-Lucifer-Rising) [#spn 7x04 Defending Your Life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x04-Defending-Your-Life) [#^the episode I couldn't remember was Defending Your Life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%5Ethe-episode-I-couldn%27t-remember-was-Defending-Your-Life) [#at the end he's all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/at-the-end-he%27s-all) [#I did the crime](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-did-the-crime) [#I did the time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-did-the-time) [#I'm good](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-good)

 

* * *

 

[5/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118930807969/on-the-treatment-of-enemy-non-combatants)  **On the treatment of enemy non-combatants**

Starting from  _Bloodlust_ , Dean’s given lip service to the idea of only killing monsters who’ve done something to get killed for.  Amy Pond, for example, killed four people that we know of (five, counting her mother), so Dean killed her.  Jacob Pond said he hadn’t killed anybody at all, so Dean let him live.  It’s been incredibly inconsistent in practice over the past eight years, but at least in theory, Dean’s been letting the enemy non-combatants walk.  And he’s generally been willing to make that determination based on nothing more than their own word, too.

So when Cyrus Styne said  _no, I am not a monster like them,* let me live_ , the Dean we have known for the past eight seasons would have let him live.  

Instead, Dean said,  _your blood is bad and you must die too_ , and killed him.

Those are the words and actions of John Winchester or Gordon Walker, not the man Dean’s grown into.

FINALLY, after claiming Dean’s getting worse all season, here is Dean  _actually getting worse._

.

* Given that young Cyrus had killed one of his schoolmates earlier in the episode, I’m not sure that he qualifies as a non-combatant.  Cyrus did the human vivisection under duress, but he still did it.  But Dean didn’t know any of that, so does it matter?

[#spn 2x03 Bloodlust](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x03-Bloodlust) [#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door) [#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner)

 

* * *

 

[5/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/118931790489/filleretive-yarnyfan-the-good-the-last-5)

I remember [saying some months ago](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/105583754284/the-luckless-lord-sleepsintheimpala-i-was) that this season felt coherent in a way that SPN seasons usually don’t.  

It only took one episode of Buckleming getting a free hand, and we’re back to  _[Naked Came the Manatee](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNaked-Came-Manatee-Carl-Hiaasen%2Fdp%2F0449001245&t=NDVlZWE0MWIwMzc1NGI1ZWJhMDM4ZDM2OTEyNGI4MDM4NjIzZTg3MCxVU1pHdW1qNw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F118931790489%2Ffilleretive-yarnyfan-the-good-the-last-5&m=1)_.

[#spn season 10](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-10) [#Naked Came the Hunter](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Naked-Came-the-Hunter)

Post linked above, which had disappeared from my archive:

> Oh my heavens, no.  The first half of most SPN seasons, watched in real time, have felt like those [round](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNaked_Came_the_Stranger&t=N2YwOGM3NzY1MTkyMWE0NzdiMjQ0MmFkYTYzMGJhOTIwMGExZjg3YSxDdnZhdDhISw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F105583754284%2Fthe-luckless-lord-sleepsintheimpala-i-was&m=1)-[robin](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FNaked-Came-Manatee-Carl-Hiaasen%2Fdp%2F0449001245%2Fref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1418964038%26sr%3D1-1%26keywords%3Dnaked%2Bcame%2Bthe%2Bmanatee%26pebp%3D1418964068630&t=OTliMGM3ODYxMzAzZDRhZDNjYzk3MzkyMWJiOTkyNTgwZjc2MDEyMyxDdnZhdDhISw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F105583754284%2Fthe-luckless-lord-sleepsintheimpala-i-was&m=1) “[novels](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FThe-Floating-Admiral%2Fdp%2F9350092719%2Fref%3Dsr_1_7%3Fs%3Dbooks%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1418964235%26sr%3D1-7%26keywords%3Dthe%2Bfloating%2Badmiral&t=NzQzNmU4YWMzNmQ1ZjgzY2NlMzQzODFlYTNjN2YyYjVkZDU5MzM0MixDdnZhdDhISw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F105583754284%2Fthe-luckless-lord-sleepsintheimpala-i-was&m=1),” in which most of the alleged fun is that the authors don’t tell each other what they’re doing.  So each chapter after the first is someone trying to make their own creative thing while also trying to figure out wtf the previous writer(s) did and maybe make it all seem like a vaguely coherent whole.  And then the last bit of most SPN seasons has felt rushed, like the crew’s frittered away most of the shift and now they have less than an hour to get through the punchlist before quitting time - and they  _do_ get through it all, but some of it’s pretty slapdash.
> 
> My enthusiasm for this season is more qualified than all y'all’s, but I am 100% with you that this season feels like a unified story created by a single guiding intelligence.  It makes a pleasant change.
> 
> [spn season 10](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-10), [naked came the hunter](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/naked-came-the-hunter).
> 
>  

* * *

 

[5/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119013759769/the-more-i-think-about-that-episode-the-more-i)

The more I think about that episode, the more I see ignorance, overconfidence, and massive miscalculations on all sides.

  * Cold-Open Bully thought he had more power than Baby Styne.  Oops!
  * Dean went rolling openly into Styne-town, totally un-prepped for dealing with villains who owned the local constabulary and an arsenal larger than his own.
  * The local constabulary thought they were picking up the usual grade of trash, and got Dean instead.
  * Posh Styne thought Dean was a gift-wrapped lab rat, and nope!  Straight-up honey badger.
  * Sporty Styne was expecting manly fisticuffs, but Dean brought a gun.
  * Baby Styne was just plain out of his depth.
  * Crowley went to answer a distress call, and walked into a trap.
  * Rowena sent something that was supposed to kill her son, and it didn’t work.  It’s a bit hard to tell if she actually meant to kill him and miscalculated (like with Dean at the bar), or if killing what was left of Crowley’s better nature was the point.
  * Either way, Sam’s faith in Rowena was demonstrably misplaced.  But he still thinks that once he fulfills his part of the deal, she’s both competent enough and honest enough to hand him a sure-fire no-tricks cure for Dean.  He  _still_ thinks he’s in control of this tiger just because he has it by the tail.  (Either that, or he’s gotten too used to dealing with demons, who really are punctilious about meeting their contractual obligations.  Not like people.  Or angels.)
  * Sam still thinks that book is the answer to his problems.
  * Castiel thought he could talk (or hug) Dean down.  But Dean hadn’t had a blessed transfusion in months, so that didn’t work.
  * Dean thought getting revenge would make it better somehow.  And it did prevent a gang of murderous sociopaths from more murder, so that’s good.  But it doesn’t seem to have made anything better for Dean.



I think the short-order cook was the only person in the episode who was working from a solid estimation of both the world around him and his own abilities, and the only one to walk away clean.  What was he even doing there, anyway?

[#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#pride goeth before destruction](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pride-goeth-before-destruction) [#and a haughty spirit before a fall](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-a-haughty-spirit-before-a-fall) [#honey badger don't care](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/honey-badger-don%27t-care)

 

* * *

 

[5/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119047241119/trai-all-filleretive-dorkilysoulless) [[trai-all](http://trai-all.tumblr.com/post/119032086903): The thing is, this vid makes me think that Sam is depressed and seeing Dean as he was rather than seeing Dean as he is.]

I think that may have been the point of the CBGB story - Sam’s version of that story is the one he picked up as a kid (amusing tale of the time Dad had to go drag Dean out a bar in New York).  Even after hearing it with adult ears (Dean was a kid dosed with God-knows-what and in some distress when John rescued him), even after hearing Castiel call it a rescue in so many words, Sam’s version is still the one he picked up as a kid.  

Once the story’s in Sam’s head, it’s set in stone.

So Sam’s sure that Dean is still in crisis (as shown in the vid) and everything is evidence that he’s getting worse.  But, from what I saw on screen this season, Dean  _was_ in crisis.  Sam & Castiel intervened.  Dean moved past the crisis point and started working out ways to cope with his chronic condition.  Sam never realistically re-evaluated Dean’s condition, never re-evaluated his to-do list in light of Dean’s changed condition, and stampeded himself into more and more panicked grasping at random straws trying to fix it all RIGHT NOW.

If Sam had been capable of adjusting his view, and worked with Dean to stabilize his condition for long-term - yoga, breathing exercises, maybe a trip to Tibet - they could have extended their timeline for finding a cure by decades.  Maybe found a solution that didn’t involve pointless sacrifices. 

But I guess that’s not the story Carver wanted to tell.

[#spn 10x09 the things we left behind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x09-the-things-we-left-behind) [#the CBGB story](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-CBGB-story) [#chronic vs emergent conditions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/chronic-vs-emergent-conditions) [#anything to avoid these boys growing up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/anything-to-avoid-these-boys-growing-up) [#no putting aside of childish things](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-putting-aside-of-childish-things) [#ever](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ever)

 

* * *

 

[5/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119072047299/so-what-are-your-thoughts-on-crowley-at-the-diner)

> [livinginthequestion](http://livinginthequestion.tumblr.com/) said: That was so strange. The guy’s name was Seth, which has some biblical significance maybe? Maybe it was just for background comic relief while the King of Hell takes a call from his ex-boo… :D 

His name was Seth?  Wait,  **seriously**?  

[Genesis 4:25](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fbiblehub.com%2Fgenesis%2F4-25.htm&t=ODUwNGUxYWYxZjBmYjEyNWE4NTBhMjViNWZiYmQ0OWFkOTNiNjc3NSxEZm5BYzVNeg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F119072047299%2Fso-what-are-your-thoughts-on-crowley-at-the-diner&m=1) And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God,  _said she_ , hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 

The name dictionaries I’m looking at don’t agree exactly on the translation, but it’s something along the lines of “compensation,” because Seth was the replacement baby for Adam and Eve’s murdered son Abel.

[#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#KJV](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/KJV) [#Genesis 4:25](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Genesis-4%3A25) [#burger guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/burger-guy)

 

* * *

 

[5/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119073375809/iwatchthepie-welkinalauda-the-more-i-think)

I was wondering why Crowley was bothering to try and tempt a guy who’s already got most of what he wants and is on track to get the rest of it.  Flipping burgers across Asia is a goal he can attain without selling out to anyone, you know?

then [livinginthequestion](http://livinginthequestion.tumblr.com/) said the dude’s name was  **Seth** , and that puts a whole other light on it.  

> [Genesis 4:25](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fbiblehub.com%2Fgenesis%2F4-25.htm&t=YTE2YjY1OWUzZmQyZDEwNjExYmVhM2ZhMzc3NzQxY2I4ZDE4NmQ2YSxiWkdCSlB3RQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F119073375809%2Fiwatchthepie-welkinalauda-the-more-i-think&m=1) And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God,  _said she_ , hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 

The name means something along the lines of “compensation,” because Seth was Adam and Eve’s replacement baby.  They have other children after, but Seth is the last of their sons named in the text.

Maybe Crowley was there because that was the original Seth, ancestor of most of humanity.

I need to go watch that scene again.

[#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#KJV](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/KJV) [#Genesis 4:25](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Genesis-4%3A25) [#burger guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/burger-guy) [#and Biblical figure?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-Biblical-figure%3F)

 

* * *

 

[5/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119115014454/so-what-are-your-thoughts-on-crowley-at-the-diner)

I read the burger names as pointing us toward Sioux City, Iowa.  Iowa is the  ~~Buckeye~~  Hawkeye State, and [I see, now that you bring up rivers] Sioux City is where the Big Sioux joins the Missouri.  I figured Phil was for Phil Sgriccia, or at least that’s what they’ll say if asked.  I have no idea what’s up with all the schnitzel.

I’m up in the air whether burger!Seth is going to turn out to be actual biblical!Seth, or if he was just a prospective rebound guy.  There’s the big red CAUTION ATTENTION sticker on the coffee maker, and Seth is the guy who roasted the beans.  He says he’s been all over.  So, maybe?  Or, maybe not - it’s not like they’ve never wasted time on a throwaway character before.

[#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#burger guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/burger-guy) [#the scenic route](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-scenic-route) [#edited for error](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/edited-for-error) [#OH != IA](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/OH-%21%3D-IA)

 

* * *

 

[5/16/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119132721439/exitpursuedbyasloth-so-last-episode-10x22)

Yeah.  No, I don’t know what changes he made in the last year, either.

I think they may  _think_ they showed us that stuff, by first showing us Crowley & Abaddon’s different styles in dealing with subordinate demons, and then later by showing us Crowley holding court, and Rowena calling Crowley a weak king.  But they also showed him playing darts on a guy’s chest.   We already knew that Crowley preferred endless-waiting-in-a-government-office torture to knife-torture as a general thing, so what’s new this past year?  I did not see that detailed.

If they actually meant to convey that Crowley is in practice running a kinder, gentler Hell in a way that makes a difference to the average soul on the rack, they did not succeed, imo.  

So yeah, that’s either an attempt at a  retcon, or the writers room not accounting for what actually makes it to the screen.

[#spn season 10](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-10)

 

* * *

 

 

[5/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119200629004/elizabethrobertajones)

orangemeta’s reblog reminded me I meant to add this -

Sam’s fake distress call directed Crowley to an address in Concordia, KS.

If Dean and Castiel wasted no time coming back from Louisiana, Sam’s got 10 hours unaccounted for. 

[#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#fanfiction gaps and plot holes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fanfiction-gaps-and-plot-holes)

 

* * *

 

[5/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119503399934/rainbofiction-4persephone-rainbofiction)

Dean does seem to kill a lot of people with their own blades - Ruby, Cain, Death, various day players.  It’s like a theme with him.

[#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#spn 4x22 Lucifer Rising](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x22-Lucifer-Rising) [#why do they keep handing him their sharps?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-do-they-keep-handing-him-their-sharps%3F) [#someone didn't get the memo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/someone-didn%27t-get-the-memo)

 

* * *

  

[5/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119505438069/harkening-back-to-the-executioners-song)  **Harkening back to The Executioner’s Song**

  1. The child Cain meant to kill was not actually there, but an illusion spell.
  2. We saw Dean raise his arm and swing, but we never saw Cain’s body.  



Dean swung that scythe and hit Death, but was that really  **the** scythe?  If so, it’s changed considerably.  Could be it’s real, and its apparent form adjusts to circumstance… or it could be that Death anticipated the possibility of Dean doing what he always does and gave Dean a weapon that would kill Sam but not Death.  Alternately, no reason to assume the form of Julian Richings we saw in that bar was the actual killable true form of Death.

Last episode Dean raised an angel blade and swung at Castiel, but all he stuck was a really nice binding.  I’m still not so sure Dean actually stuck the first blade in Cain, or (if he did) that it killed Cain for realsies.

Until I get some confirmation, I say neither Cain nor Death is dead.

[#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#spn 5x21 Two Minutes to Midnight](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x21-Two-Minutes-to-Midnight) [#Charlie either](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Charlie-either) [#but that's a different post...](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-that%27s-a-different-post...) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in)

 

* * *

 

[5/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119506550299/yarnyfan-the-idea-that-lucifer-was-corrupted-by) [[yarnyfan](http://yarnyfan.tumblr.com/post/119494516098): the idea that Lucifer was corrupted by the Mark instead of by his own pride kind of irks me.]

Yup.

It does explain how an angel, made for obedience, came to disobey so spectacularly.

But in doing so, it removes that spark of free will that made Lucifer relatable.  And it makes God even more of a prick - what was he thinking, dumping that responsibility on one of his kids?  And why didn’t he take the burden back when it proved too much, instead of letting Lucifer pass it on to a human?

[#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#messes up my metaphysical schema of the spnverse too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/messes-up-my-metaphysical-schema-of-the-spnverse-too) [#harrumph](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/harrumph)

 

* * *

 

[ 5/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119507110389/todays-earrings-worn-in-honor-of-the-spn-season)

[ ](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/image/119507110389)

Today’s earrings, worn in honor of the SPN season finale.

[#today's earrings: moose and anvils](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/today%27s-earrings%3A-moose-and-anvils)

* * *

 

[5/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119508224589/snowlantern-bakasara-dont-get-me-started-on)

wtf was that 1am undergrad semantic debate about good and evil

except those usually have actual opposing arguments and this time Dean was all,  _look at the crap we leave strewn behind us, we suck_ , and Sam was like,  _but you are **good**!  _and that’s not an argument it’s just contradiction

[#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#and Dean](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-Dean) [#for all his hand-wringing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-all-his-hand-wringing) [#still forgot all the possessed people and vessels they've offed through the years](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-forgot-all-the-possessed-people-and-vessels-they%27ve-offed-through-the-years)

 

* * *

 

[5/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119574052019/awesomedestielfanfiction-anyone-else-trying-to)

anyone else trying to drown themselves in fluffy fanfic from a different fandom?

[#spn season 10](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-10)

* * *

 

[5/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119586437709/10000wordslater-vennstiel-bangingpatchouli)

Don’t worry - everything after the graveyard in  _Swan Song_  is one long dream of Sam’s.  Eventually Sam will wake up, and Bobby will be in the shower.  It’ll be fine.

[#merrily merrily merrily merrily](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/merrily-merrily-merrily-merrily)

* * *

[5/22/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119621693734/nemmica-dean-subverting-cains-prophecy-10x17) [Dean not fulfilling Cain's prophecy]

 They prophesied Dean had to be the one to stop that first apocalypse, too.  Dean is such a contrary boy, all you have to do to get him not to do something is say it’s prophecy he will.

[#Dean!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean%21) [#It is prophesied that you will spend eternity in an ever-tightening codependent spiral with Sam!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/It-is-prophesied-that-you-will-spend-eternity-in-an-ever-tightening-codependent-spiral-with-Sam%21) [#Oh yeah? I'll show you!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Oh-yeah%3F-I%27ll-show-you%21) [#*seeks therapy*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Aseeks-therapy%2A) [#*expands community*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Aexpands-community%2A) [#*cuts back on the booze*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Acuts-back-on-the-booze%2A) [#*sets mutual boundaries with Sam*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Asets-mutual-boundaries-with-Sam%2A) [#*falls into ever-tightening codependent spiral with Castiel*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Afalls-into-ever-tightening-codependent-spiral-with-Castiel%2A) [#Hah! Showed you!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hah%21-Showed-you%21)

 

* * *

[5/23/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119724233474/i-honestly-dont-see-how-dean-can-make-a-full)

So what you’re saying here is that Death deliberately handed Dean an unfamiliar archaic farm-tool version of the scythe with a massive turning radius (rather than the Garden Fun Size scythe that Dean had held before), stood behind Dean at exactly the right distance to get whacked by the scythe if Dean missed on his first swing at Sam, and then just stood there looking peeved as Dean did, in fact, miss?

Either that was not the true form of Death standing there, or Death has a reason to want to be dead.  

[#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#I decline to entertain the possibility that Death was just carrying the idiot ball](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-decline-to-entertain-the-possibility-that-Death-was-just-carrying-the-idiot-ball)

* * *

 

[5/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119747513244/rowena-appeared-to-increase-in-power-as-soon-as)

Rowena appeared to increase in power as soon as the mark-removal spell was accomplished.  Hypotheses, to mix and match:

  * A side effect of the spell is that she’s now tapped direct into the Power of Darkness.
  * Whatever working was keeping Oskar alive was an ongoing drain on her reserves.  With him dead, she had more power to work with.
  * She had the Golden Calf and the Forbidden Fruit in her hands.  She somehow used one or both to amp herself up. 
  * She’s been underplaying what she can actually do since we met her.



I do wonder - she’s the one who specified her own beloved as the third component.  Perhaps she was tired of keeping Oskar alive and was ready to sacrifice him, too?  She did get a much better price than three pigs for the boy: The Book of the Damned  _and_ Nadia’s Codex (decoded)  _and_ whatever’s left of the Forbidden Fruit and the Golden Calf  _and_ an angelic attack dog.  That’s one hell of a haul, just for one child.

[#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#wicked witches](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/wicked-witches) [#five pig minimum](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/five-pig-minimum)

* * *

 

[5/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119750120764/if-theyre-going-to-unleash-primordial-darkness-i)

If they’re going to unleash primordial darkness, I want the consequences to look like a slow version of  _The Langoliers_.  I want matter unmaking itself and the world crumbling literally into dust, shored up only by divine intervention.  But they don’t have the budget for that, so, white guys in suits, ahoy.

Who will the newest crowd of suits be, though?  They’ve already set humans as ordinary workers, demons as generic corporate capitalism, angels as government bureaucrats, and leviathan as big agribusiness.  Probably the Darkness is going to end up being oil and coal: the global warming denialist side of the energy industry.  Could be just oil, though, based on the visual cues to date.

.

Others have suggested - and I hope they’re right about this - that Singer was so insistent that it was time for Charlie to die because they’ve already got season 11 half-plotted, and it involves her hacking Heaven.  All that punchcard imagery from Naomi’s office and the intimations of the ‘Will of Heaven’ being something HAL-like paying off.  Why they couldn’t leave Charlie alive and have Ash as their inside ghost in that machine, I don’t know, but still.  It could work.

What I would really love is if they made season 11 an all-hands situation, and brought back  _everybody_.  Get Jesse Turner re-making the world as the Darkness destroys it.  Get Michael and Lucifer out of the cage (inhabiting Adam and Sam’s bodies) for their expertise and generalship.  Get Charlie, Kevin, and Ash working behind the veil.  In the climactic episode, get all the Winchesters and Harvelles and, well, everyone who’s ever died on the show, and build of them [the dam that larinah suggested](http://larinah.tumblr.com/post/119526668882/crossroadscastiel-i-guess-i-do-really-love-the).  

It won’t play out that way - management at SPN is very insistent on individual solutions to community problems, and besides, actors cost money.  But it would make an interesting season of television.

.

I am looking forward to folks spending the summer digging up every darkness joke and reference in existence.  That part’s going to be fun.  [PLEASE someone find that clip from Bob Newhart of Suzanne Pleshette saying, “I’d rather curse.”  I think everyone will get a lot of use out if it.] 

[#spn season 11 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-speculation) [#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#larinah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/larinah) [#many hands make light work](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/many-hands-make-light-work)

* * *

[5/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119795174929/binary-ternary)  **Binary, Ternary**

 

The relationship between Cain and Abel, the first two sons, got the headlines and the attention.  Such high drama between them!  Seth was the replacement baby whose only real role in the story was to have children of his own.  

The relationship between Dean and Sam, the first two sons, gets obsessively detailed in their own Gospels.  (Lots and lots of gospels.)  Adam was an afterthought of a bastard son, died of someone else’s attempt at vengeance on his father, got dragged back to life as bait for his brothers, and was last heard from stuck in a box with a couple of pissy archangels.*  He’s a tertiary character, even on the occasions of his own deaths.

Heaven and Hell, again - longstanding rivalry, everyone’s following their box scores.  Purgatory’s half-forgotten on the sidelines.  

.

In the SPNverse, Heaven and Hell are the territory of sons of the Father (Michael, Lucifer; their lieutenants and proxies).  Purgatory, by contrast, is the domain of Mother Eve.  

God named Adam, Adam named everything else, including Eve (different Eve).  Which makes it notable that Gn 4:25 is explicit in all translations that  _Eve_ was the one to name Seth.  He’s  _her_ son.

Sam and Dean - for all the lip service to their dead mother - are definitely their father’s sons.  Adam, on the other hand, had occasional fun-day contact with John, but was named and raised by his mother.  

.

I still think they missed anopportunity in  _Mommie Dearest_  - Eve should have taken the form of Kate Milligan, the mother who was present in raising our heroes’ spare brother, not the sainted-but-absent Mary Winchester.  Eve’s line about everything being fine until her children started getting kidnapped and tortured into the current Hell/Heaven squabble?  Would have had a lot more resonance coming from something that looked like Kate, whose kidnapped son was even then being tortured by archangels bickering for Heaven and Hell.

But this is something the writers at SPN  _do_  - they expand past their basic binary for a moment, show us a glimpse of tantalizing possibilities beyond their black/white universe… and then they put their blinders back on and return to their accustomed rut.  Lately, I’m coming to think that the problem is that Bob Singer doesn’t have the capacity to think outside his little box.  He’s smugly certain that the audience is even more limited than he is, and on that ground reins in any of the writers whose imaginations aren’t quite so impoverished.  So all mothers are Mary, the third alternative is hand-waved away, and heroes are heroes no matter how self-involved and ugly their behavior gets.  

But I digress.

.

So, Rowena’s sons.  There should be a third.  Or rather, a second.  If the pattern holds, Oskar-called-Seth is the third son, the one that’s not like the other ones, the one who belongs to the mother.  Fergus-called-Crowley is the violent eldest, abandoned by his mother, set adrift.  There should be a second son of his father, the other half of Crowley’s matched set.  What happened to that boy?  It might explain Rowena’s great antipathy for her Fergus.  

After Show went to the trouble of hanging that SETH name tag on Oskar, I’d like to think the ternary setup is intentional and will have a payoff.  But I don’t have a lot of faith in their follow-through, at this point.

_____

* re: speculation that Adam was never in the cage.  Which, if you hadn’t heard it, is, if Adam’s body died of getting molotoved with holy fire, then Adam went direct to Heaven and Michael took the big dive alone.  Basically the debate turns on whether holy fire would kill an archangel-inhabited body.  My take is that what will or won’t kill a character in film-land is all writer fiat, and there have been no later definitive statements in canon from any character in a position to actually  _know_.   But, I figure, it would be comforting to think that Adam has been rested in Heaven all this time, and SPN doesn’t do comforting.  Ergo, kid’s in the cage.  OTOH, if TPTB end up playing it the other way, that would also be consistent with the text.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics) [#Genesis 2:19-20](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Genesis-2%3A19-20) [#Genesis 4:25](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Genesis-4%3A25) [#Genesis 5:3-8](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Genesis-5%3A3-8) [#spn 6x19 Mommie Dearest](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x19-Mommie-Dearest) [#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#wicked witches](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/wicked-witches) [#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location)

* * *

 

[5/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119905831214/filleretive-deanwinchuster-the-dean) [why did Dean forget that John was a bad parent]

He took up the knife.  Without his dad there to guide him, he hurt others and he liked it.  Which means, John was right all along and Dean did too deserve it.

[#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

[5/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120001878119/okay-1-i-love-your-blog-holy-fuck-nuts-and-2-i)

I still think Death’s been talking about about alternate Earths (like in  _The French Mistake_ ), rather than something orbiting Tau Ceti.

[#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#spn 6x15 The French Mistake](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x15-The-French-Mistake)

* * *

 

[5/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120089736999/season-11-predictions)

Or a flashback to a bar in Hanoi where young-and-drunken John Winchester and Deacon Kaylor take the stage topless (between sets) to sing “Honky Tonk Women.”  The woman who’s actually getting paid to sing that evening is much taken with John.  What with one thing and another, it turns out our boys have an older sister.   _Had_ an older sister.  Now they have a niece, who would like a word with them.

[#spn pre-canon speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-pre-canon-speculation) [#topless Matt Cohen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/topless-Matt-Cohen)

* * *

 

[5/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120331999884/i-saw-the-anon-asking-about-lucifer-and-michael)

I think Nick’s dead, myself - his body  _really_ didn’t look good at the end there - but if he’s not, seems to me he’d be a semi-catatonic burnt-out husk like poor Donnie Finnerman, taking up bed space as a John Doe in some Detroit charity hospital.  Nick should be as easy for Lucifer to re-possess as Donnie was for Raphael.

[#spn 5x03 Free to Be You and Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x03-Free-to-Be-You-and-Me) [#spn 5x22 Swan Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x22-Swan-Song) [#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation)

 


	6. June

[6/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120426374634/iwatchthepie-welkinalauda-replied-to-your) 

[I don’t have the episodes in front of me, so I’m going from memory and the [transcripts](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D10.02_Reichenbach_%28transcript%29&t=ZTM1NDU0YjI3ZGQwZmNlNGRkMjJlNzBlOGQ1MGY3ZjY0OGZkMDNlMSx3ZDZkb2lTWg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F120426374634%2Fiwatchthepie-welkinalauda-replied-to-your&m=1) at supernaturalwiki.]

There were just so many holes in the story.

That flashback in 10x02 - boy-Cole hears a noise, finds his daddy bloodily butchered.  Dean walks in, completely blood-free except for the knife he’s holding.

Maybe the total lack of blood spatter on the presumed killer was a style choice.  (This is the production crew who once slipped a pair of jeans under a cast; clearly continuity is not their only priority.)  Or it could be a boy mis-remembered details of a traumatic event.  Or maybe Dean killed the guy wearing plastic poncho, wandered off to dispose of that, and then meandered back in, knife still in hand.  

Or it could be that someone else did the wetwork on Ed Trenton, and Dean picked up the discarded knife on his way in.  

Then, how did Cole go from “I remember seeing a stranger holding a bloody knife in a darkened room” to “that stranger was  **definitely** Dean Winchester, Aquarius, likes sunsets and frisky women”?  What’s the path there?  

More specifically, how’d Cole fix on Dean without knowing about the monster stuff?  Say Cole managed an accurate sketch, good enough for facial recognition.  Any source that would give him Dean’s name would also include records of grave desecration, the alleged shapeshifter in St. Louis, whatever law enforcement made of the Leviathan rampage in s7, and other weird tales.  Cole sounded to me like he wasn’t just discounting the ghost-and-monster shtick as a con, but like he’d never even  _heard_ any of it.  

Dean, in the initial confrontation with Cole, says he doesn’t remember Cole’s father.  That’s maybe a hole, maybe not - the boys have been shown with perfect memory when it’s plot-convenient, and ordinary memory when that’s plot-convenient.

Dean’s second telling of the death of Ed Trenton in 10x07 is, to my mind, a bald and unconvincing narrative, lacking in corroborative detail and anything resembling verisimilitude.  “I remember him now!  He was a completely unique liver-ripping monster!  On his way to kill you - or your mother!  (but not the brother I don’t seem to know you had.)  I killed him for your benefit!”  

…capped off with telling a combat veteran that he wouldn’t want to touch the darkness of deliberately taking a life.  wtf does Dean think US troops  _do_ in combat zones, exactly?  Or does it only count as darkness when you kill US citizens on US soil?  

And (here’s the part I really hated) that  _worked_.  Cole  _bought_ that.  Cole spent half his life chasing his one-armed man.  Then, once Cole’s found him, all it takes is his life’s villain asserting that Cole’s daddy  **did too**  deserve to die, and Cole’s willing forgo his mission objective and return to his family.  WTF?

After Cole’s slunk away, Dean tells Sam, “I was just telling the guy what he needed to hear.”  Dean specifically disclaims any truth value in his preceding statements.

Which leaves me wondering, was all that just badly written?  As in, here’s a bad speech full of cliches which is totally convincing because the same writer is controlling both sides of the conversation.  Or, was it a badly written fake out of some kind?

.

The writers have spent the past few seasons hammering on the idea that we should be distrusting the narrative.  That the story is not what really happened.  Given that, I do not believe we should take the tale of the death of Ed Trenton - one long plot hole, collaboratively told by a child, a demon, and a liar - at face value.  

[#spn 10x02 Reichenbach](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x02-Reichenbach) [#spn 10x07 Girls Girls Girls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x07-Girls-Girls-Girls) [#a bald and unconvincing narrative](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-bald-and-unconvincing-narrative)

* * *

 [6/3/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120677778894/would-it-be-reasonable-to-assume-that-the-boys)

There are cruise ships that run from the mainland to Hawaii, so, maybe HI too.

I’m trying to work out if it’d be more plausible for the boys to scam themselves passenger berths, or to go as crew.  I am hampered in this by never having been on a cruise ship.

[#wayward sons abroad](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/wayward-sons-abroad)

* * *

 [6/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120763094269/would-it-be-reasonable-to-assume-that-the-boys)

“Introduce your little friends, Maui.”

“Er, yes, of course.  Madame Pele, these are Dean Winchester and his brother, Sam Winchester.”  

“Pele?  I hear you’re one- “ 

Gabriel clapped a hand over Dean’s mouth.  “Finish that sentence and there will be lava,” Gabriel hissed. 

“We are honored,” Sam said.

“Yes.”  She was beautiful, large and solidly built, with a pronounced Local accent.  “What are you doing cluttering up my island?”

“There was a shipboard poltergeist.  And then we were in Hilo, and we thought we should come pay our respects.”

.

Oh, hey! [volcano webcams](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fhvo.wr.usgs.gov%2Fcams%2F&t=YjFiNjIyZTYyZDY2MjRlMTQzNjE1OGZiZGRkMmEyN2FhNjQxYzI0OSxpYUNrdW1RYw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F120763094269%2Fwould-it-be-reasonable-to-assume-that-the-boys&m=1)!

[#volcano webcams](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/volcano-webcams) [#this is the age of miracle and wonder](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-the-age-of-miracle-and-wonder) [#spn goes to Hawaii](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-goes-to-Hawaii) [#iiii writes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/iiii-writes)

* * *

 [6/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/120915859064/so-i-have-just-rewatched-5x16-and-ash-mentions)

My own theory is that when we see a ghost go up in flames (or crumble to dust, or splash, or whatever) it’s the material-world manifestation of that spirit disintegrating in the veil.  And, like demons hit with Ruby’s knife, those spirits are really dead, gone, past resurrecting.  Mary went up in flames taking out that poltergeist, so, while others may invoke her image and her memory, the actual soul of Mary Campbell Winchester is no more.

The spirits that go away without disintegrating, on the other hand, we have no definitive information about.  I think we’ve only seen three:  

  * Constance Welch would seem to have gotten dragged off to Hell by her children.  (I hope they didn’t have to stay with her.)  
  * Molly McNamara had neither made a deal nor earned damnation through works, so my guess is that once she was willing to go, a reaper collected her for Heaven.  
  * John Winchester did make a deal, though, which ought to DQ him for Heaven.  On the other hand, all his shenanigans went a long way to getting Heaven’s design fulfilled, so they ought to have set out the red carpet for him.  But Ash couldn’t find him there.  It’s possible John’s in Heaven, but the equivalent of a gated community (perhaps the Garden?) where hackers can’t get.



But if not in Heaven, where?  John’s got no business in Purgatory.  If he was still in the veil he’d have haunted his sons by now.  If he was back in Hell Crowley would have found the cruelest possible moment to bring it up.  We could postulate a whole ‘nother afterlife alternative - Hades, Valhalla, reincarnation, some such - but those aren’t supported in the text, like, at all.

It’s also possible that John’s moving on just looked peaceful, and really he’s disintegrated and gone, like Mary.

[#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics) [#John's present location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John%27s-present-location)

[perfectly good theory promptly debunked by lizbobjones citing Bobby Singer]

* * *

 [6/9/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121117535499/yarnyfan-sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol)

…and now that I’ve had some time to overthink this - 

What’s odd isn’t that the sign is  _there_ , but that it’s lit at an hour when the road is empty enough for demon-summoning.  Someone forgot to turn it off at closing, I guess?

(My imaginary backstory on the bar is that Butch opened the place in the 1930s, back when that two-lane blacktop was still unpaved and still part of a main route from somewhere to somewhere else.  The roads got paved in the 40s, and business boomed.  Then in the early 60s, the interstate stole all the heavy traffic.  Butch’s stayed popular with the locals, though, helped by the proximity of a couple of dry towns.  Kingdom offered to pay for sign installation in the 70s, and Butch’s daughter happily took them up on it.  These days the place belongs to some guy from Chicago who still makes most of his money programming, but it amuses him to play barkeep in the evenings.  He’s the one who forgot to turn off the sign.)

[#spn overthinking](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-overthinking)

* * *

[6/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121491880999/i-think-god-is-dead)  **I think God is dead**

[DEATH](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D5.21_Two_Minutes_to_Midnight_%28Transcript%29&t=YTIyZGMzMmFiMTIwMjNiYmYzMTExNGI2MzA2Njg4YzA3MDVhOGM2MyxlYU1mTlFETA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F121491880999%2Fi-think-god-is-dead&m=1)     As old as God. Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg. Regardless –  **at the end, I’ll reap him, too**.

DEAN       God? You’ll reap God?

DEATH     Oh, yes. God will die, too, Dean.

.

The end started in August of 2014.  Or, at least, in the AU where the Winchester Gospels are a TV show,  the episode called “[The End](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DThe_End&t=Zjk2YzdmZjIyNmM5ZjA2Njg2M2I4NWUyNzMxNmY2YzhhNzhkMWE1MCxlYU1mTlFETA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F121491880999%2Fi-think-god-is-dead&m=1)” was set in August of 2014.  Last summer, basically.  And, as [f-ckyeahfutbol](http://f-ckyeahfutbol.tumblr.com/) has [detailed](http://f-ckyeahfutbol.tumblr.com/post/121339535116/this-is-the-end), the events of “The End” are playing themselves out in the canonverse.

This past season has been the enactment of the end of days.

.

Death (apparently) was killed by his own scythe in the last episode.

If we assume Death is a competent authority, and I do, then we can assume his prophetic-type utterances will turn out to be true.  Which means, if Death’s really dead - which I’m not 100% on, but we’ll see - Death reaped God at “the end,” but before Death met his own end.  Therefore, God died sometime between August 2014 and May 2015.

.

No bet on whether either of them will stay dead.

[#spn 5x21 Two Minutes to Midnight](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x21-Two-Minutes-to-Midnight) [#spn 5x04 The End](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x04-The-End) [#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#John 11:25](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-11%3A25) [#I am the resurrection and the life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-am-the-resurrection-and-the-life) [#he who believes in me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-who-believes-in-me) [#though he die](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/though-he-die) [#yet shall he live](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yet-shall-he-live)

* * *

 [6/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121520367639/f-ckyeahfutbol-filleretive-im-trying-to) [death-of-Charlie as Pieta tableau]

I was going back to Matthew 26 for the last supper and the passion, and then I got sidetracked on the Stone Table in  _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ , with Aslan going willingly to be murdered by the White Witch in Edmund’s place, and promptly resurrecting:

_“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and **the darkness before Time dawned** , she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and  **Death itself would start working backward**.”_

[#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Lion-the-Witch-and-the-Wardrobe) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in) [#resurrect Charlie promptly](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/resurrect-Charlie-promptly)

* * *

 [6/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121740819389/elizabethrobertajones-spn-hellatus-rewatch) [lizbob's 2x3 rewatch]

Eight years before this ep - in which Sam argues that enemy non combatants A) exist, and B) shouldn’t be summarily executed - Sam spent an afternoon with a girl named Amy.  That afternoon ended with Amy killing her own mother and Sam covering Amy’s escape from his father and brother.

It kind of bothers me, how the writers decided to make Sam’s deference to the Geneva Convention the consequence of a Romeo&Juliet setup.  I’d prefer he actually had actual morals, rather than the memory of a girl who got away.

[#spn 2x03 Bloodlust](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x03-Bloodlust) [#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door)

* * *

 [6/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121810116404/larinah-watching-inception-again-this-time)

I have long held that everything since the graveyard in  _Swan Song_  is a dream of Sam’s - so if the Darkness is actually the onset of him waking, Sam should come to in Stull Cemetery, and Dean could be anywhere.

[#Bobby is in the shower](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Bobby-is-in-the-shower) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in) [#the finale of Newhart redeemed Dallas and St. Elsewhere to me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-finale-of-Newhart-redeemed-Dallas-and-St.-Elsewhere-to-me)

* * *

 [6/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121816264844/larinah-welkinalauda-larinah-watching)

[I actually caught the Newhart finale live - I don’t know why, I hadn’t really watched in a few seasons - but I am so glad I tuned in that night.  Suzanne Pleshette sitting up and yawning may be the funniest thing I ever see in my life.]

I would also be sorry to lose Donna, and what we had of Charlie, not to mention Kevin.  And the bunker.  Not to mention Rowena…

But at the same time, a reset to 2010 would un-kill Sarah Blake, and Lenore, and a lot of the contents of the SPN fridge.  Lisa and Ben wouldn’t have been mindwiped.  Castiel wouldn’t be an oathbreaker who heard and ignored the pleas of his vessel’s wife and child for years on end.  8x15 would never have happened.

Plus, think of the meta potential of treating the past five seasons as Lucifer’s experiments on/dissection of Sam Winchester’s psyche. :)

Your scenario is likelier, of course, and it sounds like a good episode.  Would Crowley be waking up alone in that church, do you think?  

[#merrily merrily merrily merrily](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/merrily-merrily-merrily-merrily)

* * *

 [6/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121819956229/hellsbells91-losing-track-of-time-a-meta-for) [[hellsbells91](http://hellsbells91.tumblr.com/post/121782500854) on DemonDean]

Later, in  _Inside Man_ , they make a big deal of Dean taking that kid’s special-gift-from-daddy watch.

I don’t know if this is relevant, but my younger acquaintances don’t wear watches.  (One of them told me, “if I want to know what time it is, I look at my phone.”)  Wristwatches aren’t gone from the world, by any means, but they seem more and more like trains, pay phones, vinyl LPs, cars without computer chips - a formerly pervasive technology that’s rapidly disappearing in RealWorld, but is still central in the SPNverse

[#spn 10x17 Inside Man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x17-Inside-Man) [#This train's got the disappearing railroad blues](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/This-train%27s-got-the-disappearing-railroad-blues)

* * *

 [6/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/121893069649/so-when-crowley-had-to-enter-sams-head-to-get-him)

if they’d exorcised him, wouldn’t they have gotten the Dean equivalent of soulless Sam?  Still not a win, from Sam’s point of view, and better to keep body and soul together so they could work the only cure they knew.  

It would have been interesting, though, to see how soulless Dean differed from demon Dean, if at all.

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation) [#is it worse to be demonized or soulless?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-it-worse-to-be-demonized-or-soulless%3F) [#why do the writers keep asserting that soulless and demonized men are better lovers?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-do-the-writers-keep-asserting-that-soulless-and-demonized-men-are-better-lovers%3F) [#it's annoying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-annoying) [#and does not match real-world experience](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-does-not-match-real-world-experience) [#but I digress](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-I-digress)

* * *

 [ 6/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/122016348039/elizabethrobertajones) [Sam endgame]

Her name is Jennifer (because it’s ridiculously common and SPN never names anyone Jennifer) and she insists on naming the dog Spot (because she grew up in LA on the Cal Worthington ads, and at some point she asks Dean, “Who knows what evil lurks in your plumbing?” and he stares at her like she’s grown another head).  She crosses paths with the boys on a hunt, ends up with a broken leg, and since she doesn’t have a home base they take her back to the bunker to recuperate.  She gets all heart-eyed over the archives.  The boys like having someone at base running dispatch again.  After she heals up and goes back in the field, she keeps dropping back by the bunker.  Just to check something in the library, she says.  Uh-huh, Dean says, and leaves them to it.  At some point Sam realizes that if he’s sleeping in Jenny’s room in the bunker even when she’s away on a job, it kind of makes it  _their_ room, which is kind of awesome.  They all live happily to a ripe old age.  The end.

 

…or something like that.

[#Adee do](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adee-do) [#end game for Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/end-game-for-Sam)

* * *

 

[6/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/122139141339/dahliasheng-supernatural-outer-space) [mentions of space-stuff]

They’ve had the means to get a clearer look at space (and the darkness thereof) ever since they found their grandfather’s secret society’s lodge house.  But it’s just been sitting there in the background, unnoticed and unremarked, part of the set dressing.

[#spn set dressing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-set-dressing) [#telescope in the bunker](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/telescope-in-the-bunker)

* * *

 

[6/23/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/122236971849/dustydreamsanddirtyscars) ["I'm proud of you" parallel scenes]

My fridge horror takeaway from ^this parallel was a little different.  

They keep telling us that possessed people are aware of their surroundings, and know what the possessing demon is doing with their body, and maybe even get to hear the demon monologuing.  So John was awake and aware when his eldest son said,  _you’re not my dad, I can tell because my dad isn’t proud of me_.  We can guess what hay the demon made of  **that** , in the privacy of John’s skull.  

John saw himself through Dean’s eyes, and saw John’s idea of a villain.  Not Dean’s idea of a villain - Dean at this point still thinks his Dad is a hero.  But John had his nose rubbed in his own shitty parenting here.  And what does he do about it?   **Yet another** high drama, damn-the-consequences gesture that doesn’t fix what he broke and leaves everything worse in the long term.  Before John goes to jump off that cliff he stops and says to Dean,  _no, really, I am proud of you_.  So he can tell himself he  **did** say it, if only the once.  Because John would prefer saying it out loud once just before dying, rather than finding a way to stick around and do the long haul emotional labor necessary to convince Dean that he is too something to be proud of.  

[#spn 1x22 Devil's Trap](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-1x22-Devil%27s-Trap) [#spn 2x01 In My time of Dying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x01-In-My-time-of-Dying) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent) [#always the dramatic shortcuts with him](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/always-the-dramatic-shortcuts-with-him) [#look how badly it turns out](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/look-how-badly-it-turns-out)

 

 


	7. July

[7/2/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/123036436359/elizabethrobertajones-kayanem)

Yes.

Also, the motels John Winchester raised them in are exactly the kind of places recently-paroled people live.  I imagine Sam holed up in the room with a book while Dean hangs out in the parking lot discussing the finer points of second-story work with the guy in room 17.  So even if Dean hadn’t done any adult time, he’d at least go in to Green River knowing how to read the tattoos.

[#spn 2x19 Folsom Prison Blues](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x19-Folsom-Prison-Blues) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

 

[7/4/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/123221893589/so-yesterday-the-gang-at-cheers-donnies-was)

So yesterday the gang at  ~~Cheers~~  Donnie’s was [talking about Sam & Dean never having gone to the beach](http://iwatchthepie.tumblr.com/post/123165130982/rainbofiction-deathbycoldopen#notes), and how likely was it that Sam never got there, what with three years at Stanford and all?  And I was typing up this whole thing about 

a) of course someone sometime at Stanford said to Sam, “Get in the car, loser, we’re going to the Boardwalk.”  Because, come on - it’s a whole damn campusful of college students, some from nearby, some from far away.  There would have been expeditions to the local sights,* many of which are on or near beaches.  And Sam was a nice polite boy who looked like a nineteen-year-old Jared Padalecki.   _Of course_  he got dragged along.

b) and what kind of bullshit is the idea that  **Dean’s** never been on a beach?  I know his comfort zone is the upper Midwest, but it is canon that he’s been to LA and Broward County and miscellaneous coast-adjacent New England towns.  I just find it really hard to believe that they drove the length of Florida and never once stopped and walked on the sand, you know?  Or that they took the drive from SF to LA and didn’t pull off PCH in Malibu.  

So I figure when Sam said, “Never,” that had to have been hyperbole.

…and then I realized that I was very hungry, and now would be a fine time to get the diner hash browns & bacon I’d been thinking about for weeks.  AND ALSO the 38 bus runs right by the diner, so I should take that bus across town and find out whether Green Apple had the second season of Orphan Black.  And… oh, wait, I was supposed to make plans for today with my BFF.  So I called her, and we were canvassing our usual options, when, inspired by all this thinking about beach-adjacent sights of the California coast, I suggested dinner at the Cliff House.  And then I hustled her off the phone because I really was very hungry.

So I abandoned my post and went to the diner and ate of the hash browns.  Then I went to the bookstore, and they had season 2!  I impulse-bought the first season of Twin Peaks, because it was there.  And a Gorey sticker book, because someone made a Gorey sticker book and I want to encourage that sort of behavior.  I proceeded to the Cliff House to meet my BFF, and turns out it’s been longer than I thought since I’d been out that way - there’s a whole new buildingup in the parking lot, coffee & gift shops + bathrooms, that I’d never seen.  According to the date on the side, it went up in 2012?  So, been a while.  

We got a table overlooking the surfers.  BFF was saying what a good idea it was to come out there, so I confessed what had inspired the idea.  She only laughed at me a little.  Then she told me about how in her senior year at Davis, her roommate J said that she’d never seen the Pacific.  So, my BFF - incredulous that someone could live in California for three+ years and never see the ocean - promptly shoved J into a car and dragged her off for a weekend in Santa Cruz.  They did classwork on the beach, rode the Giant Dipper while sunburned, and found out why the motels in Beach Flats are so cheap.  

Not sure if that counts for or against my theory that someone must have dragged Sam to the beach sometime before the Fall of his senior year.

But now, my friends, I am off to marathon season 2 of Orphan Black.  

____________________

* Do you think someone took him to the Winchester Mystery House?  I think someone took him to the Winchester Mystery House, and Sam was almost disappointed to realize that there were no ghosts there and most of the myth about the place has no basis in fact.

[#it was a good day](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-was-a-good-day) [#missions accomplished](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/missions-accomplished) [#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation) [#Stanford era](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Stanford-era) [#vamos a la playa](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/vamos-a-la-playa) [#rambling on and on](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rambling-on-and-on) [#iwatchthepie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/iwatchthepie)

* * *

 

[7/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/123292897914/think-young-play-hard-kathryn-newton-golf) [Kathryn Newton in Golf Digest]

and now I’m wondering if they wrote the mini-golf scene because they realized they’d hired a player, or did they hire her because they wanted to do the mini-golf scene?

* * *

 

[7/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/123709155884/filleretive-spncastdaily-ruth-connell-on-the) [promo photos of Rowena]

She’s been dressed in black, made blonde, and labeled with a silver “I.”

combo that with the return of Grampa Campbell and Dean in an aloha shirt & a straw pork-pie hat, I’m thinking dream sequence.

[#spn season 11 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-speculation) [#a dream is a wish the heart makes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-dream-is-a-wish-the-heart-makes) [#I think this will turn out to be a dream sequence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-think-this-will-turn-out-to-be-a-dream-sequence) [#and that's why we're seeing so many pictures of it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-that%27s-why-we%27re-seeing-so-many-pictures-of-it) [#but who even knows with this show](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-who-even-knows-with-this-show)

* * *

[ 7/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/124055891179/about-crowley)  **About Crowley**

 

 

I should probably collect up the relevant clips, but it’s late and I’m speculating irresponsibly here:

\- If he’s dead (I think that was Mark Sheppard said that)

\- but he’ll be back in a whole new way (said a writer)

\- and Misha Collins said he’s got a contract for next year, but I haven’t seen that Mark Sheppard said anything similar

Maybe they recast the part.

[#spn season 11 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-speculation) [#irresponsible speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/irresponsible-speculation)

* * *

 

[7/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/125029784184/another-reason-why-dean-is-so-self-conscious-about)

So, about the American school system - 

Every district sets its own curriculum guidelines, and every.single.teacher writes their own lesson plans.

Which means, even if tiny Dean had gotten to school every day - and I think y’all are right that he missed more than his share of days, even with John getting motel maids to baby-sit when possible - the constant moving around would mean a new set of curriculum guidelines and an entirely new set of lesson plans every month or two.  It would mean skipping back and forth in every subject, re-covering or completely missing topics at random, then trying to fill the gaps in his knowledge on his own.

It’s no wonder Dean gave up on formal schooling early.

And I have to figure that Sam was working his way through a decent home-schooling curriculum in parallel to whatever work he was doing for the schools he was officially enrolled in.  I don’t know if Dean would be of any help with the academic side of that - but I do know Dean ran their household in such a way that it was possible for Sam to spend his time studying.  

 

* * *

 

[7/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/125235562664/welkinalauda-dean-winchester-10x14-the)

 

 

 

> **Dean Winchester**  | 10x14  - “The Executioner’s Song”   
>  [Part 1](http://justjensenanddean.tumblr.com/post/111424357277/dean-winchester-10x14-the-executioners)

I look at that face and I see, “Oh god no.  It didn’t work.”

They were promised that stick of bone could kill them, and now they know it won’t.  That looks to me like Dean - who’s been some degree of suicidal since we met him - realizing there’s no way out, not ever.

 

Jensen: we never saw Dean kill Cain  #DCCON

[deanharrisackles](http://deanharrisackles.tumblr.com/post/125107307204/jensen-we-never-saw-dean-kill-cain-dccon):

 

> [x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FAtStakeMagazine&t=ZWRjOWUyMWFjMmY0N2ZhYTNjODIzZjRmMjRlZWFjMGJmZjlhZDZhZixlTmJ4YXZWTw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F125235562664%2Fwelkinalauda-dean-winchester-10x14-the&m=1)

[#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#dccon 2015](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dccon-2015)

* * *

 

[7/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/125269940819/elizabethrobertajones-kayanem)

But Dean  _wasn’t_ just another soul - he was the Righteous Man, and he got the personal attention of Hell’s best torturer for as long as it took to convince Dean to shed blood.  Not that ordinary Hell is fun for the ordinary run-of-the-mill damned folks, they’ve been really clear that it’s not.  It’s just, Dean did canonically get the Super Deluxe package, not the basic service.

[#Dean in Hell](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-in-Hell)

* * *

 

[7/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/125479229864/dean-all-right-well-how-do-we-get-this-puppy)

 

> _**Dean:**  All right, well, how do we get this puppy out?_
> 
> _**Dr. Visyak:**  Well, come on. You know this one. We need a brave knight who’s willing to step up and kill the beast._
> 
> _**Dean:**  Right. All right, well, I’ll, uh, give it a whirl. Do you mind?_

well, of course it didn’t work.  He wasn’t a knight yet.

[#bet abaddon could have popped that sword right out](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bet-abaddon-could-have-popped-that-sword-right-out)

 

 

 


	8. August

[8/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/125582834944/themegalosaurus-swap-meat-5x12-i-was-watching)

This scene says so much in so few lines.  

– By the fifth grade, someone had told Sam what he’d need to do to get into college, and Sam was doing it.  I’ve talked before ( _ad nauseam_ ) about how the US school system isn’t a system and how a kid who gets moved a lot  **will** fall behind.  Someone - Pastor Jim, maybe, or some random teacher - gave Sam the idea that he could home-school himself in parallel to whatever public school he was attending that week, and Sam did it and it  _worked_. 

– John Winchester didn’t always just abandon his minor children unsupervised in an unfamiliar place for an extended period.  At least sometimes, he at least tried to corral an actual adult into taking charge of the boys, and he at least sometimes came back to a place where he knew he’d find a reliable sitter.  She says John loved his boys.  So did Jerry Panowski and I don’t know who-all else.  Everyone remarks on how conspicuously John loved them, which has to have made his abusive parenting choices even more of a mind-fuck for them.  Because John wasn’t all about deliberately hurting his children.  Some of the time he was making responsible-ish, caring-like choices.  But that’s mixed in with abandoning them unsupervised in unfamiliar places for undefined lengths of time, and the physical abuse implied in imposing combat training on an unwilling child, and the financial insecurity, and making the kids witness to their father’s alcoholism, and, and, and - but he loved them!  Just ask anyone.  Total mind-fuck.

– Sam kept trying to tell people about the scary-ass shit in his life.  He told the baby sitter when he was eleven.  He wrote it down and turned it in to an English teacher when he was fourteen.  I guess they all thought he had a marvelous imagination.

[#spn 5x12 Swap Meat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x12-Swap-Meat) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

 

* * *

 

[8/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/126335724485/maraparkers-lisa-braeden-appreciation-week)

It’s funny - they showed all those folks telling all those deep, dark, secrets: manicurists, rapes, how tiresome long term unreciprocated emotional labor can be - and and those folks brought them up out of the blue, too, not just following the other person’s conversational lead.  

Then they get to Lisa and,  ** _this_** is her big reveal.  That she knew it was a matter of time before Dean bailed to go chasing Sam.  The elephant that had been crapping up her living room for a year was her biggest secret.

And yet there’s still people insisting she must have been lying about Ben’s father.

[#I don't get it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-get-it) [#why is it better that she be a liar than a slut?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-is-it-better-that-she-be-a-liar-than-a-slut%3F) [#why is so important that Dean's family end with blood?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-is-so-important-that-Dean%27s-family-end-with-blood%3F)

 

* * *

 

[8/31/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/128038624319/yarnyfan-f-ckyeahfutbol-dirtyovercoat-i) [Castiel's tattoo & the Winchester rib carvings both contain Lucifer's sigil]

Or causation’s the other way round - could be the symbol meant ‘taboo’ in the first place and that’s why the angels applied it to Lucifer.

[#enochian speculations](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/enochian-speculations) [#fabricating etymological derivation in a constructed language](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fabricating-etymological-derivation-in-a-constructed-language)

 

 

 

 


	9. September

[9/4/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/128339195059/themegalosaurus-safe-sex-sam-in-7x13-for)

Yeah, no.  That kind of ‘accident’ should not be ‘happening’ to Dean.  Not to a guy with his horror of possession who knows that vessel-hood is genetic.  No way would he carelessly hand the angels another set of tap shoes for their next dance-off.

[#spn 7x13 The Slice Girls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x13-The-Slice-Girls) [#character assassination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/character-assassination) [#everything after Stull is a dream of Sam's](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/everything-after-Stull-is-a-dream-of-Sam%27s)

* * *

 

[9/4/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/128343157514/i-havent-even-seen-agent-carter-but-you-made-me)

the conversation would be enlivened by Dean not knowing (or maybe he would know? not sure) that ‘rhubarb’ back then was slang for a squabble, but Angie knowing full well what ‘cherry’ is slang for.  So they trade pie-related innuendo banter for a while, and then Angie looks past Dean’s shoulder and says, “If I had to choose, I’d say mine’s a peach.”  Dean follows her gaze to where Peggy and Castiel are walking in the door, and says, “Yeah, mine too.”

[#pie-related innuendo banter](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pie-related-innuendo-banter) [#spn x ac](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-x-ac)

* * *

 

[9/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/128442495669/ease-on-down)

I keep meaning to do a comparison between the “Wizard of Oz as Populist parable” idea and the “Supernatural as economic allegory” idea.  

So, like, in Oz

  * Dorothy = the common person
  * Scarecrow = farmers
  * Tin Man = industrial workers
  * the Cowardly Lion = William Jennings Bryan
  * and the Yellow Brick Road and the Silver Shoes are about monetary policy



While in SPN

  * Sam & Dean are ordinary people, one with class aspirations, one without
  * demons & hell = corporate capitalism
  * angels & heaven = big government



There’s some nice opportunities for analysis, for ex. conceptualization of community - 

Dorothy in Oz almost immediately begins collecting companions, and together they get what they want from both the Witch and the Wizard.  They only part after they all have their rewards.  Community-building in Oz is valuable and rewarding.  

Sam and Dean, on the other hand, see every community they try to form or join preemptively burned down.  The demons and the angels between them do all they can to prevent the Winchesters from getting or keeping any rewards.  Attempts at community-building in SPN are pointless and only make it hurt more in the end.

 

Mostly I like the idea that Sam & Dean are, collectively, Dorothy.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn x oz](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-x-oz) [#compare and contrast](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/compare-and-contrast) [#I wish someone would take the idea and do something with it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wish-someone-would-take-the-idea-and-do-something-with-it) [#because realistically I'm not going to](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-realistically-I%27m-not-going-to)

* * *

 

[9/6/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/128496453724/justanotheridijiton-mrsbluebertgreggleson)

Did anyone else watch  _Friday the 13th, The Series_?  The premise was that Our Heroes’ evil uncle sold cursed antiques, and when Our Heroes inherit his shop they take it upon themselves to recover all the evil he sent out into the world.  Their cursed ballet shoes episode has stuck with me, because while I could take their standard bad writing, bad acting, and bad effects in stride, the very bad dancing in that ep tripped me out.

[#spn 7x16 Out with the Old](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x16-Out-with-the-Old) [#cursed objects](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cursed-objects) [#Friday the 13th The Series](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Friday-the-13th-The-Series)

* * *

 

 

[9/25/15 ](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/129889411479/supernatural-season-11-nate-torrence-is-sully)

**Sully** v.; Damage the purity or integrity of; defile. 

Or, what Azazel did to Sam when Sam was a baby.

[#that actor looks just like Sully from Monsters Inc though](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-actor-looks-just-like-Sully-from-Monsters-Inc-though) [#only more pinkish](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/only-more-pinkish) [#less furry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/less-furry)

* * *

 

 

[9/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/129926498849/this-gets-me-every-time-theyve-turned-the)

This gets me every time.  

They’ve turned the screw tighter and tighter, ramping up the tension to the moment when Death offers some deep dish to our hero Dean.  It’s a very fraught moment… and then Dean goes tines-down with his fork, and I’m all, “WTF?  That’s not right,” and my brain goes haring off about tines up vs tines down and geography and class - Dean Winchester falls squarely in tines-up territory, imo - and what exactly did JA/the director  _mean_ by it, because this is way too deliberate to be a careless error.  Isn’t it?  Or maybe not…

…and the moment is gone.

[#spn 5x21 Two Minutes to Midnight](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x21-Two-Minutes-to-Midnight) [#table manners of the apocalypse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/table-manners-of-the-apocalypse)

* * *

 

[9/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/129939944214/mittensmorgul-elizabethrobertajones)

There was a letter to Miss Manners I read thirty years or so back that stuck with me - some dude in the US diplomat corps wrote in to say how embarrassed he was at his fellow Americans’ table manners, specifically how “childish” it was to eat with the fork tines-up.  Miss Manners replied that she was not easily embarrassed, but the thought that this dude was representing the US on the international scene had done it.  She followed with a detailed vindication of the tines-up style.  I don’t buy her argument that it’s actually classier to eat tines-up, because, seriously?  But I have been noticing, ever since, how the people with whom I dine use their utensils. 

In my experience, USians who eat tines-down are immigrants, long-term expatriates, people who spend a lot of time in Europe, and people who want to convey the impression that they spend a lot of time in Europe.  Pretty much everyone else keeps their tines up.  Jensen Ackles, who at that point had been mostly in Canada for five years?  Sure, tines down, np.  

Dean Winchester, though?  Class, geography, and temperament would indicate that he’s a tines-up kind of guy.  The fastest, least messy way to shovel down your food is using the method to which you are most accustomed.  So when in a high-stress situation Dean does a neat, practiced tines-down maneuver as one to the manner born, it bumps me out of the moment.  It’s like if they had Dean use “fancy” as a verb, you know?  It’s not un-possible for an American to do that, but it’s really out of character for Dean in particular.

[#spn 5x21 Two Minutes to Midnight](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x21-Two-Minutes-to-Midnight) [#table manners of the apocalypse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/table-manners-of-the-apocalypse)

* * *

 

[9/26/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/129950006519/ben-as-deans-son)

In the Veritas episode, Lisa’s big confession was that she was pretty sure the LDR with Dean wasn’t going to work out.  If she’d been lying to Dean about Ben’s paternity all that time, shouldn’t “Ben is your bio-son” have been the first thing out of her mouth?

Thematically, too - the show is about the value of family, a lot of it specifically about chosen family and how the people who choose to love and support you can do as good or better a job than the ones who were drafted by biology.  Dean chooses try to be a foster-parent to Ben, just as Bobby chose to try to be a foster-parent to Dean and Sam.  How could blood be better?

[#why is it better that she be a liar than a slut?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-is-it-better-that-she-be-a-liar-than-a-slut%3F) [#why is so important that Dean's family end with blood?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-is-so-important-that-Dean%27s-family-end-with-blood%3F)

 

 


	10. October

[10/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130313432664/dorkilysoulless-pirrofarfalla-supernatural)  **Supernatural Season Eleven Promo ([x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcjDjj2AW4lY&t=OGI3MjFiMTAzN2EwOTYwNTk2OGE5MGQ4MjAxNGFlZDgzMDE3OTZhOSw3bEFTYlRkaA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F130313432664%2Fdorkilysoulless-pirrofarfalla-supernatural&m=1))**

First impressions:

1) I hope that song means Death’s not dead.  

2) Bunny at the 0:40 second mark.  Dude in most of a (different) animal costume at 1:03, followed immediately by a scary clown.  With balloons.

3) Rainbow baby at 1:13.

4) Bootlegger’s turn at 1:45.  I do love a good bootlegger’s turn.

Portentous women throughout, including Rowena.  Hm.  (Up in the air whether I want that to be Cassie back: on the one hand I wasn’t much impressed by the original actress, but on the other I hate how casually they re-cast the women, incl. mortal humans, while the head demon - who could be skipping merrily from body to body spreading the hell around - stays stubbornly Mark Sheppard.)

[#spn season 11 promo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-promo) [#bunnies bunnies it must be bunnies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bunnies-bunnies-it-must-be-bunnies) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in)

* * *

 

[10/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130321209459/casclaire-oh-death-x-does-that-clown-look)

Does that clown look like Rowena to anyone else?

[#spn season 11 promo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-promo)

* * *

 

[10/2/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130327092117/abbxaeaa-what-the-h-e-double-hockey-sticks)

White-knighting is still problematic, even when it’s a woman we like doing it.

[#spn 10x08 Hibbing 911](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x08-Hibbing-911)

* * *

 

[10/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130732032714/charlie-died-for-that)  **Charlie died for that?**

That felt like a mid-season filler episode.  

I really hate it when they bring back an actor who played a character with a largish speaking part to be an entirely different character with a largish speaking part.  It’s distracting as hell.

Also: you can skimp on the script, and you can skimp on the acting talent, but when you skimp on both at the same time, it really, really shows.

[#spn 11x01 Out of the Darkness Into the Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x01-Out-of-the-Darkness-Into-the-Fire) [#did the guy playing Amara's daddy win a contest to be on the show?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/did-the-guy-playing-Amara%27s-daddy-win-a-contest-to-be-on-the-show%3F) [#because well um](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-well-um)

* * *

 

[10/9/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130803498074/pitch-black-coffee)  **Pitch Black Coffee**

Juan(ita)’s has a big neon sign out front that says CAFE, which falls before the onslaught of darkness gone a-gusher.  There’s another CAFE sign out front of the gas station where Jenna changes Amara’s diaper.  While Dean’s on the phone with Sam there, you can see the big neon GAS behind Dean’s head.  

Those who were speculating a few months ago that this season’s big bad would be a metaphor for the oil industry would seem to have been on the right track.

(I’d screencap, but my computer is non-compliant at this time.)

***

Sam just happens to walk a mile in the direction where Dean is passed out?  Or he spent some time walking a grid search?

“She saved me” from… what, exactly?  The front seat of his car?

“We know what she looks like, and we know that she’s evil.”  No.  Dean knows how she appeared to him inside the whirlwind; he doesn’t recognize her when she reappears outside that context.  And Dean knows what Death said, that God locked away the Darkness before creation.  The Darkness would seem to be anathema to God, and thus “evil” in that sense - but since when has Dean taken the agenda of the spn-verse God for his own?  (At some point it’d be nice to get the writers to make explicit the Winchester definition of “evil”.  First five seasons of spn, I was pretty sure “evil” in their lexicon meant “ sentient non-human that kills humans for food or sport.”  Last five seasons, the definition’s been a touch vaguer.)  Now Dean’s all determined to lock the Darkness up again without asking whose side God was on when he imprisoned her in the first place.  The God of the spn-verse is not always up with people.

***

Castiel’s a chicken come to roost, but, sadly, that’s not his home coop.

Cas may not have killed Crowley, but the guy Crowley’s been possessing has been run through with an angel blade and is now really most sincerely dead.  Hope he gets a nice heaven.

“I can’t help myself” - and yet, all he did was knock that kid down on his way by.  Maybe his control is better than he thinks it is.

***

“I confess my transgressions and I will accept whatever punishment you dole out.  I ask you to help me.  Please, save me from doing worse.”  A couple of angels show up and give Castiel what he asked for.  It wan’t what he was expecting, but it was what he asked for.

Crowley, too - we didn’t get to see him make that long-distance call, but the minions showed up with a half-complete checklist.

**They both called for help and got what they asked for**.  Looks like Sam’s going to be asking for help next episode, so this week’s asks & receives are foreshadowing, maybe?

***

So  _very_  illegal to drive around with a babe in arms, and a cop should know that.  I don’t care what it does to the aesthetic, they’re going to need to put in a car seat.

[#spn 11x01 Out of the Darkness Into the Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x01-Out-of-the-Darkness-Into-the-Fire) [#the big bad is big oil](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-big-bad-is-big-oil) [#personal lexicon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/personal-lexicon) [#be careful what you ask for](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/be-careful-what-you-ask-for)

* * *

 

[10/9/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130863658519/id-rather-curse) I’d rather curse

Yeah, I think that “orgy” was their response to the part of the audience that isn’t willing to wave off the consent issues.

Relevant scenes transcribed after the jump.

 

 

> Crowley:  **Vanilla Spice**?
> 
> Husband: Marn?  Down here!
> 
> Crowley: Hm. [hefts tire iron, descends stairs into a careful reproduction of a 1970s living room.  A fat orange candle is burning on the coffee table.] What’s going on?
> 
> Husband: You just sit your tush down, OK?  Just let me get this out.  I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said.  And-and I know, I lost my chickens when you put it out there, but it’s not every day that your wife tells you that  **she wants to watch**  you get a party started with your best friends, I mean, am I right?
> 
> Best Friends: [enthusiastic noises]
> 
> Crowley: Hm, go on.
> 
> Husband: So, I-I slept on it, and I prayed on it, and, then it came to me: YOLO.
> 
> Crowley: YOLO.
> 
> Dale: [making emphatic finger-guns] You Only Live Once.
> 
> Crowley: Don’t.
> 
> Dale: Sorry.
> 
> Husband: So I called Dale, and he said-
> 
> Dale: H-E-double-hockey-sticks-yeah!
> 
> Husband: Dale ran it by Deb-
> 
> Deb: We were only going to get buffet anyway. [giggles]
> 
> Husband: Here we are!  I didn’t think I’d be this nervous but-
> 
> Dale: Oh, hey, hey, don’t worry, we’ll be gentle.  Not.
> 
> Deb: Oh, Dale. [general giggling]
> 
> Husband: Anyhoot.  It’s your day,  **Birthday Girl**.  You just say go, and heck,  **we will light this candle**.
> 
> Deb: Marn, everything ok with the car?
> 
> Crowley: Oh.  [tucks tire iron away]  It’s fine. Just fine.

*****

 

 

> [Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual” playing in the background.  Camera pans across the bloody semi-naked corpses of Dale, Deb, and Marn’s husband.  The tire iron is now on the couch, and the candle is still lit on the coffee table.]
> 
> Crowley: Took you long enough.
> 
> Minion with Glasses: We came as soon as you called, uh - what do we call you?
> 
> Crowley: King.  What about the other white meat suit?
> 
> Minion with Glasses: Secure.  We have another team, and a witch, removing Rowena’s immobilization spell as we speak.
> 
> Crowley: Hm.  Is anybody hot?   **I’m hot**.
> 
> Minion with glasses: I believe  **that’s the menopause** , sir.  
> 
> Crowley: Thank you.  What?
> 
> Minion with Mustache: Uh, it’s nothing, sir.
> 
> Crowley: Speak.
> 
> Minion with Mustache: It’s just, you barely escaped assassination, you’re arguably on the run from the most powerful witch on Earth, not to mention an angel of Heaven, and uh, 
> 
> Crowley: And uh…?
> 
> Minion with Mustache: You-you didn’t call for help until after the orgy.
> 
> Crowley: Hm.  I apologize.   **For nothing**.

*****

She’s what they think of us - menopausal vanilla-spice suburbanites, too prissy to say “hell” out loud, born too late to be real swingers, wishing for adventure - but only wanting to watch.  

So they made it her birthday when they had their woobified villain use her body to slaughter her nearest and dearest, and make the ugliest mess possible of her carefully-decorated life.  

And then they had their woobified villain call the desecration they’d perpetrated “nothing.”

[#spn 11x01 Out of the Darkness Into the Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x01-Out-of-the-Darkness-Into-the-Fire) [#spn 11x01 partial transcript](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x01-partial-transcript) [#It was her damn birthday](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/It-was-her-damn-birthday) [#I'm feeling a lot of contempt from the writers here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-feeling-a-lot-of-contempt-from-the-writers-here) [#They say it's](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/They-say-it%27s) [#Better to light one candle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Better-to-light-one-candle) [#than curse the darkness](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/than-curse-the-darkness) [#I'd rather curse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27d-rather-curse) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes)

* * *

[10/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/130908895829/f-ckyeahfutbol-wigglebox-f-ckyeahfutbol)

I think Crowley’s working that Ferengi “War is good for business” thing.  He’s not  _immune_ to strife, exactly - he just lets it flow over him and turns it to his own advantage.

[#Four Shetland Ponies of the Apocalypse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Four-Shetland-Ponies-of-the-Apocalypse)

* * *

 

[10/12/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131069247334/weapons-and-dean-winchester)  **If Dean is the weapon, who is holding him, so to speak?**

First three options to pop to mind:

\- His father, both literal John Winchester and metaphoric God.  And later, metaphorically John Winchester and literally God.  

\- Himself.  The repeated characterizations of him as a weapon would in this view be a means for the writers to dissociate the woobie/hero from the grotesque consequences of his actions in the audience’s minds.

\- Mother Eve.  Lots of high-powered types talk and talk about how much they want to possess Dean and use his body as their sword, tool, whatever, but only one external force has managed it.  And that was by a critter purpose-built by Eve.  

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#Daddy's blunt little instrument](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Daddy%27s-blunt-little-instrument) [#weapon of choice](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/weapon-of-choice)

* * *

 

[10/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131204885199/night-of-the-hunter)  **Night of the Hunter**

I really should get around to seeing  _Night of the Hunter_.  It keeps coming up, here and there.

(Not seeing what  _Night of the Hunter_  and “Sugar Shack” have in common, though, other than Sam using both as bait.  Anyone have ideas?)

So… turns out there  _is_ another final destination.  We knew about the veil, Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory; now to those we can add ‘the empty,’ which I take as a poetical allusion to the Void.  Still hoping for Hades and Limbo to get mentions.

Sam asked God for a sign, and boom, there’s a vision and a reaper with a message.  Last week, Castiel called on the angels, and got what he asked for.  Crowley called on the demons, and ditto.  

Has Dean asked for anything?  Maybe next week…

Nice reaper, by the way.  I hope she sticks around.

Sam keeps getting sullied, and keeps re-purifying.  But it seems like the routine is getting to him.  There was a time (7x04) where he said he wasn’t feeling guilty any more because he felt like he’d evened up his ledger and he could move on.  Looks like that feeling has passed and maybe won’t be back.  

Torture is again depicted as a viable mean of eliciting useful information.  Which it’s not.  I wish they’d stop doing that.

[#spn 11x02 Form and Void](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x02-Form-and-Void) [#again with the torture](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/again-with-the-torture) [#can we start calling the kid Audrey II?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/can-we-start-calling-the-kid-Audrey-II%3F)

* * *

 

[10/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131207302829/rainbofiction-and-lo-a-man-in-unifom-doth) [We gotta get a maid]

 

> Everybody ought to have a maid,  
>  Someone who in fetching you your slipper will  
>  Be winsome as a whipporwill  
>  And graceful as a grouse:  
>  Skittering down the hallway,  
>  Flittering through the parlor,  
>  Tittering in the pantry,  
>  Littering up the bedroom–  
>  Twittering all around the house! 

I am very angry, actually, that they gave Dean that particular line to Perform Horndoggery with, because now I have “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid” - as catchy a bit of misogyny as was ever committed to a Broadway stage - in my head, and it’s not leaving.  Fucking earworms.

[#spn 11x02 Form and Void](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x02-Form-and-Void) [#A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/A-Funny-Thing-Happened-on-the-Way-to-the-Forum)

* * *

 

[10/17/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131338364643/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other-ones)  **One of these things is not like the other ones**

Four angels in an abandoned wheelshop: three die; Castiel walks out.

Sam lures three infected people to the hospital chapel.  All are cleansed, and go forth to spread the cure.

Jenna smashes three plaster angels in her grandmother’s bedroom (we hear two of them shatter before Dean & Crowley walk in) and tosses a fourth at Dean as a distraction.  That one gets left behind, safe and unbroken, on the bed.

Crowley presents Amara with four “candies,” neatly pre-wrapped for her delectation and packed in a black van.

[#spn 11x02 Form and Void](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x02-Form-and-Void) [#One of these things is not the same](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/One-of-these-things-is-not-the-same) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes)

* * *

 

[10/20/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131599570469/mittensmorgul-larinah-iwatchthepie-the)

One line from the song that came through clear was “espresso coffee tastes mighty good.”  I thought - with 11x01 starting and ending with visible CAFE signs - that maybe that they were getting a coffee meme going.  But with only two examples this season it’s still in the ‘coincidence’ category. 

[#spn 11x01 Out of the Darkness Into the Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x01-Out-of-the-Darkness-Into-the-Fire) [#spn 11x02 Form and Void](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x02-Form-and-Void) [#Anger and coffee feeding me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Anger-and-coffee-feeding-me) [#once is happenstance twice is coincidence three times is enemy action](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/once-is-happenstance-twice-is-coincidence-three-times-is-enemy-action)

* * *

 

[10/24/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131844472409/three-in-one)  **Three-in-One**

 

> [_Trinitarianism_  ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCategory%3ATrinitarianism&t=MmI0NTU1ZDgzMGMzNTFhODUyZmMyM2YzZWFjM2NiMjA2OWY5NjgxYixyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1)is the Christian [doctrine](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDogma&t=NWU4MzkyYjM5MTFjMjhiZmRlOTMwZDMxZWJmM2RkZTcyN2VkNzYxMixyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1) that [God](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGod&t=MjhjNDk1YjYxNzQ1Nzk4MjU3MDJiMTFmMmFlYjc4YjQ0NGUyYjRlNSxyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1) exists as three  _persons_ (Greek  _[hypostases](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHypostasis_%28religion%29&t=MWU0Zjc1MjJkNmVhNjM0ZDhhOWIzMGVlN2FkNmMxMWVkNDhhNzBmNixyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1)_ ) but is [one being](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMonotheism&t=NDdmODUxMjQwMWE2MmI3ZDdjMjhiYzBhNjRlZGI0YWJlNzAxMjNkZSxyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1). The  _persons_  are understood to exist as [God the Father](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGod_the_Father&t=OWZhOTM0MDg1OTY5ZTdiNDliNDU1YWVhM2RiN2UyNDA3YjI5OWM4NCxyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1), [God the Son](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FGod_the_Son&t=MDM5NjM0NDgxZjg2MGFlNmFkMmQ3YjBjNzc2OTVkNTJkOGFkNmFlOSxyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1) (incarnate as [Jesus Christ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FJesus&t=MzIyOWQ5YmFiYWQ2YzMwYzQ5MDY2NmZlNmQwZTE1NWI3ZTA1NzlkMSxyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1)), and God the [Holy Spirit](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHoly_Spirit&t=MGRjZTgxMTc1Y2IxOWM3NmM5ZjcwODlhZjBiNzhhMzk0N2E3ZTE3NSxyZWRJTmJCcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F131844472409%2Fthree-in-one&m=1), each of them having the one identical essence or nature, not merely similar natures.

Or, in this season of Supernatural, Dean the parent, Amara the child, and Amara-of-the-Whirlwind the Holy Spirit.  Three separate entities, and yet all of a single essence.

Trinitarian theology gives me a headache - seems to me a lot of hyper-rationalizing and over-parsing of an idea better explained by repeating that God is omnipotent and ineffable, and maybe some vigorous hand waving.  (plus I was hoping that we’d be getting Charlie as the risen Christ about now, so them making trinitarian motions instead is kinda disappointing.)

[#spn season 11 meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-meta) [#I want to call the young Amaras](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-want-to-call-the-young-Amaras) [#Audrey I Audrey II Audrey III](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Audrey-I-Audrey-II-Audrey-III) [#and now we're up to Audrey IV](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-now-we%27re-up-to-Audrey-IV)

* * *

[ 10/25/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/131915151314/rainbofiction-justanotheridijiton-chicon) [Singer bobbles consent]

Does anyone know why he’s suddenly doing the convention circuit?  And why no one prepped him better? 

[#privilege on parade](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/privilege-on-parade) [#it's not just that he isn't a deep thinker](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-not-just-that-he-isn%27t-a-deep-thinker) [#and he hasn't thought any of this through](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he-hasn%27t-thought-any-of-this-through) [#it's that he's sure in his bones](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-that-he%27s-sure-in-his-bones) [#that he's the most knowledgeable person in the room](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-he%27s-the-most-knowledgeable-person-in-the-room) [#on all subjects](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/on-all-subjects) [#so he can't hear the question](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-he-can%27t-hear-the-question) [#much less start to think about it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/much-less-start-to-think-about-it) [#he's no great thinker](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-no-great-thinker) [#and he's sure we're dumber than he is](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-he%27s-sure-we%27re-dumber-than-he-is)

* * *

 

1[0/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132005265829/filleretive-if-you-think-dean-winchester-would) 

 Dean Winchester is one hell of a PA.

[#I don't know if he's the stage manager necessarily](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-know-if-he%27s-the-stage-manager-necessarily) [#he's certainly crew](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-certainly-crew) [#and if he sticks with it he'll be running productions sooner or later](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-if-he-sticks-with-it-he%27ll-be-running-productions-sooner-or-later) [#but I could see him as the prop guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-I-could-see-him-as-the-prop-guy) [#or one of the stagehands](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-one-of-the-stagehands) [#for now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-now)

* * *

 

[10/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132131957849/baby-love)  **Baby Love**

What I liked about that most?  It was different.  Different pace, different camera angles, different emphasis.  Our boys laughed.  Talked about what they dream these days.  It made for a change.

Be nice if the writers kept up the communicative dialogue.  I doubt they’ll do it, ‘cause their main shtick is soap-opera-scale pointless secrets, but it’d be nice.  [please, Show, prove me wrong.  PLEASE.]

Also nice, also unlikely in an entirely different way, would be for them to get the technical crew from H:LotS back together to make an episode of SPN.  Or the technical crew from Firefly.  Or Leverage.  H:LotS especially, though - I would love to see the bunker set through a dolly camera doing donuts around Dean and Castiel staring at each other, and the final scene including half a dozen different takes of the same line cut together in quick succession.

On a practical note, I hope they get poor Baby’s windshield replaced quickly.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby)

* * *

 

[10/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132132407824/wait)  **Wait**

That passed the Bechdel Test.

Damn.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#Jessie and her buddy discuss a missing purse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Jessie-and-her-buddy-discuss-a-missing-purse) [#Bechdel pass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Bechdel-pass) [#NOT THAT DAMN HARD](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/NOT-THAT-DAMN-HARD)

* * *

 

[10/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132133375924/god-helps-those-who-help-themselves)  **God helps those who help themselves**

If you make a point of trying to fill your down time with productive pursuits, God will give you

  * a hunt that turns out to be something
  * a nice young woman who’s into getting laid in the back seat of a classic car
  * her butterfly barrette
  * time and space to talk to your brother
  * and laugh together, too
  * an angel at home base doing oracle duty
  * a monster species with the “Kill alpha-cure the rest” feature activated
  * a monster with the “chatty Cathy” feature activated
  * a Hello Kitty bag with 40-year-old pennies in the coin purse
  * no time to put away your weapons properly
  * another monster with useful perspective on the Big Bad
  * a conveniently situated set of highway barricades



[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#I'm sure I'm missing some](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-sure-I%27m-missing-some) [#the author-gods were very helpful this episode](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-author-gods-were-very-helpful-this-episode) [#lots of deus in that machina](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lots-of-deus-in-that-machina) [#deus ex metallicar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/deus-ex-metallicar)

* * *

 

[10/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132133720869/themegalosaurus-turns-out-sams-fairly-expert) [Piper gifset]

sonovabitch

same uniform

Their mother wore that uniform.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 6x19 Mommie Dearest](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x19-Mommie-Dearest)

* * *

 

[10/28/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132135032434/iwatchthepie-every-part-of-the-buffaloalso)

and I hear it as a reference to “every part of the pig except the squeal” - which to me makes it kind of…  _complicated_ when they put that line in a cop’s mouth. 

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 10x08 Hibbing 911](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x08-Hibbing-911) [#Upton Sinclair](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Upton-Sinclair) [#The Jungle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Jungle)

* * *

 

[10/29/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132151365339/peter-pantomime-throwing-my-two-cents-in-the)

I’ve got a crack theory that Michael and Lucifer have used their time in the cage to work through all their Thesis vs Antithesis crap and will emerge a single Synthetic entity, wearing Adam’s body. 

That just being Lucifer in Sam’s dream is more likely, though.  And  _something_ was certainly up with his voice.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#a vision softly creeping](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-vision-softly-creeping)

* * *

 

[10/29/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132155532799/deus-ex-machina)  **Deus ex machina**

Next-morning thoughts, without having re-watched:

Dean came tottering out of that bar alone around sunrise, right when someone inside was turning off all the exterior neon.  All-night poker game with Jimmy?  Yes, that’s it, poker.  Has to be.

Sam didn’t drive at all.  Or even ask to drive.  Dean was behind the wheel the whole way.  Ouch.

When they’re on the road, the back seat is Sam’s bed and the front seat is Dean’s bed.  [insert bed meta]

Dean kept turning his back on monsters.  First the deputy, then the soccer mom.  Dude, you know better than that.

Dean want to go home to the comfortable stationary location where his angel is holed up.  Sam already is home.  Sam’s idea of home is what Dean’s was ten years ago, While Dean’s moved on to a different thing.  Be nice if this time they can flow with the asymmetry instead of trying to force themselves into lockstep.

Baby is God.  Or, at least, Baby is the machina the SPN-verse Deus is currently inhabiting.  Seems to me the simplest explanation for why no one noticed the rivers of blood streaming down her windows, and for how she managed to start with her front end mangled like that.  [insert God & Gabe/Baby & Castiel’s car meta]

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#deus ex metallicar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/deus-ex-metallicar) [#baby is god](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/baby-is-god) [#I have to go to work now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-have-to-go-to-work-now) [#dammit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dammit)

* * *

 

[10/29/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132197865929/rewatch-notes-part-1)  **rewatch notes, part 1**

“[Guitar Man](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DhrsKJ0KUyJw&t=NGY5MjdhMzZmYmI1YTk0NzA2OTVkZjlkYWQwMmIzMDZjNWZmZjAzNixDMXducDI2SA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F132197865929%2Frewatch-notes-part-1&m=1),” Bread 1969

“So we have an ancient evil out there, just getting stronger by the day,” Dean says, as he wipes away suds and we see him, with a giant MoL logo on the wall behind him.   _Could that ancient evil be… the Patriarchy? [dun-duh!]_

shortsbaiting.  :(

Quaker Valley, OR - not real.  There is a Quaker Valley, but it’s outside Pittsburgh.  I guess they wanted Oregon, though, so it could stereotypically rain on a freshly-washed Baby.  I suspect the water of being symbolically important.

That ‘smoothie’ is not a smoothie as I understand them.  insufficient density.

“You don’t remember this place?” and then some bullshit about some woman whose last known location, according to Dean, is two time zones away.  But I guess Dean and Sam and this Heather chick had fun at Jimmy’s once, and to Dean that makes Jimmy’s a thing of beauty and a joy forever.  Meanwhile, Sam a ) didn’t remember the place at all, and b) rejects Dean’s attempt to bond by re-living the good times.  Poor Dean.

Fade to dawn, Dean emerging from Jimmy’s, and someone belatedly shutting off the exterior lights.  Last call in Oregon is 2:30am, so those lights should have gone out three or four hours before.  I guess they got really involved in a game of Risk or something, just couldn’t tear themselves away.  Dean’s “mistakes were made”?  Clearly expressing regret at his failure to take Australia early.

Piper was totally checking Dean out.  

That’s the best look I’ve gotten at that cooler - seems to be [this one](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F415527503092862197%2F&t=MzJiZTU3Y2RhMTY2ODNkNmNmZWY1Mjg5NzU1MzdlYmMxYWZhZWQ2OSxDMXducDI2SA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F132197865929%2Frewatch-notes-part-1&m=1).  Geeze, it’s older than they are, and still pristine.  Their daddy may have been an abusive jackass, but he sure did teach them how to take care of their equipment.

The hairpin is a carefully lampshaded gold-tone butterfly.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 Baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby-rewatch-notes) [#this episode is very dense](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-episode-is-very-dense) [#lots to see](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lots-to-see)

* * *

 

[10/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132198195769/rewatch-notes-part-2) rewatch notes, part 2

“[Night Moves](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbgOA24hAe60&t=ZDBmNWZlN2JjNDQxOWMxZmExYWRhZTdkYjU4OGRhZTljMTFiZDg1OCxsOTc2bXF5NA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F132198195769%2Frewatch-notes-part-2&m=1),” Bob Seger 1976

Here’s that wee sing-song with the strapping lads Rowena was wishing for last week.

And here’s Dean rejecting Sam’s attempt to bond over the possibility of domestic love in the future.

Dean’s been driving all day, but Sam’s the one who’s being sent to take a nap.  Hm.  This is the episode that’s showing us the between-bits that don’t get into the routine show.  Should we assume that something we persistently don’t see (Sam driving) isn’t happening at all?  Or can we project fill into the fill, and figure Sam drives the afternoon shift and lets Dean doze, but we didn’t see it because nothing of import happened while Sam was driving?   _and the interstitial fill goes fractal_ …

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 Baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby-rewatch-notes) [#so good to see them laughing together](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-good-to-see-them-laughing-together) [#a wee sing-song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-wee-sing-song) [#fractal fill](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fractal-fill)

* * *

[ 10/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132199562954/rewatch-notes-part-3)  **rewatch notes, part 3**

rewatch notes, part 3

“[Someday Soon](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4Jn90y9H9S4&t=ODU2ZmYwMTI4NWExNWIxODY1NzQyNjZkNjRjMzM5NzAwMDk5ZWZkZSxGM3JnVnJNWA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F132199562954%2Frewatch-notes-part-3&m=1),” Judy Collins 1968 [Who Knows Where the Time Goes]

[Has anyone meta’d “Someday Soon” yet?  It’s about a girl who wants to run off with a boy her parents hate.]

Sam knows right away that’s not his dad, because his real dad would never compliment Dean like that.  I don’t think that’s Gabriel; Gabriel takes the guise of strangers.  Michael would wear John Winchester’s face, but I don’t think he’d claim to be John, nor would he be so insinuatingly familiar with Sam.  I think that’s going to turn out to have been Lucifer messing with Sam’s head in this vision.  

“You boys are the only ones who can stop it.”  Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard  _that_ line of tripe before.  Remember when Dean was the only one who could end the apocalypse?  Actually, if we can take a parallel to the absolute wrongness of the previous “[you are the chosen one](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dk4q8wT213WI&t=Njg4MWY5ZmIzZTZjNjQyYWY0YTI0NmEyYjQ0NTNmYjgyMmJjYjc3NyxGM3JnVnJNWA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F132199562954%2Frewatch-notes-part-3&m=1)” crap, that gives me hope that we’ll see the formation of an Inter-Afterlife Union of Dead Souls to communally resist the Darkness.  :)

What is with the traffic cones all over everywhere?  (Are those traffic cones out the back window?  I think those are traffic cones.)  Lot of road work this season, I guess.

Dean’s got a point about Sam claiming to be anti-secret but not being good with disclosure in general.  But… has Dean spilled everything to Sam?  Ever?  I don’t think he has.  But, yeah.  Dean’s not going to stop claiming to be “fine” until Sam starts volunteering the worrisome shit that happens to him, and Sam’s not going to start volunteering the worrisome shit that happens to him until Dean dials down his reaction to that shit a few more notches and also starts sharing his own tightly-packed baggage.  They  _really_ need professional counseling to walk them through this, and that’s not going to happen.  

A headlight flashes behind Dean as he asks, “When was the last time God answered any one of our prayers?”  and then again on “[Dad]’s teaching me how to drive.”

The jerk/bitch thing… I never thought it was all that cute, and I’m not impressed that they have them still doing that nonsense at this late date.

Welcome to Oregon, fed threads… I am very suspicious of of the carefully lampshaded Deputy Donelly.  And also his suggestions in food and lodging.

…and my suspicions are vindicated!  Bad valet!

Jessie’s girlfriend washes dogs?

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 Baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby-rewatch-notes) [#angelic visions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/angelic-visions) [#there's a revolution going on in Amsterdam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-a-revolution-going-on-in-Amsterdam) [#traffic cones and road work](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/traffic-cones-and-road-work) [#complimentary schismogenesis](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/complimentary-schismogenesis)

* * *

 

[10/30/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132216805209/ludditeheart-elizabethrobertajones)

They’ll go back for it.  They have been taking meticulous care of that cooler for thirty years, and…

oh.

wait.

The cooler is magic.  It has to be.  Coleman makes a good, sturdy product and all, but that cooler has no dents, no scratches, no rust.  It’s pristine.  This episode alone should have added some dings to the exterior, and after thirty-some years hunting with the Winchesters?  That cooler should be a bent and rusted mess. 

Maybe it’s an enchanted box that somehow ended up in the Men of Letters storeroom.  Henry Winchester brought home for [reasons], and left it behind when he went missing.  It auto-camouflages and self-repairs, which is how it still looks so good.

The boys will go back for it.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#the green cooler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-green-cooler) [#no camping equipment left behind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-camping-equipment-left-behind)

* * *

 

[10/31/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132309978254/rewatch-notes-part-4)  **rewatch notes, part 4**

“[Bad Girls](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2uYs0gJD-LE&t=M2ZjOWY0YjdhY2IzNTM4MThlNjE5YjUzNmFjYmY5ZmVjODcyOTIyZSxjSVUwUjlVOQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F132309978254%2Frewatch-notes-part-4&m=1),” M.I.A., 2012 [Matangi]

Jessie - callback to Jessica Moore, or Jesse Turner?  Both?  (Or maybe Jesse James.)

I bet Jesse Turner could reconcile the Darkness to the Light without breaking a sweat.

“Parking’s a bitch” - I just got that.

Personally, I’d have picked a mountain road to cruise, or maybe seen how she opened up on the highway, rather than doing donuts in a dirt lot.  But hey: different people, different choices.  Construction equipment visible in that dirt lot, btw.

And we drop the carefully lampshaded Hello Kitty purse.  

No!  don’t split up!  Be genre savvy!  

that spot “in the woods” - it’s the car equivalent of graveyard.  No, an ossuary.  Desiccated parts everywhere.  So creepy for poor Baby, to be parked next to a stack of old tires like that.

Dean as investigative professional: he not only can see it’s been staged, he rates the skill of the stager.  …and then he turns his back on Deputy Dumbass.  No, really, he’s supposed to be more genre savvy than this.

Excellent pratfall, though.

I think that’s “Utility Automobile” through the passenger window.

…highly competent decapitation, there.  Genre savvy gaps aside, he really does know what he’s about.

The green cooler has been visible on the back seat  **the whole episode**.  Ordinary episodes, I guess it’s there, maybe, but its presence is at best implied.  This time, though, it’s So. Very. Conspicuous.  It’s gotten the biggest lampshade of them all - so I hope it turns out to be significant later.  Possibly the container that ends up encapsulating the Darkness?

“Everybody’s getting jumped.”  and the machete slides under the front seat.  Clue set complete!

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-baby-rewatch-notes) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game) [#the green cooler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-green-cooler) [#no camping equipment left behind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-camping-equipment-left-behind)

* * *

 

[10/31/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132316109614/rewatch-notes-part-5)  **rewatch notes, part 5**

Castiel doing the oracle thing.  They’ve been needing an oracle since they lost Bobby.  Be nice to have one on call again.

They are driving down the road in a noticeably blood-spattered car with the acting sheriff’s undead head in a cooler and a woman who’s been beaten unconscious in the back seat.  And no one notices.  That car has the best SEP field known to man.

Blood spatter’s right where Dean laid his head the night before, too.

Parallel scenes: Castiel dispensing lore long-distance in the foreground while Dean gets jumped by Deputy Dumbass in the background; Sam scrounging change in the background while Dean gets jumped by Mrs Markham in the foreground.  Castiel didn’t notice anything until the car door slammed; Sam didn’t notice anything until the car started.  And then there were gunshots.

So very nice of the monsters to chip in on the exposition.

DD sending Sam into a trap - don’t our heroes have a bunch of code words & stuff to prevent just that sort of situation?  But, on the other hand, if the trap invite came from Dean’s phone, Sam might walk into it anyway because he’s that kind of self-sacrificing hero.  Kind of like, the kind of critter Mrs Markham is doesn’t go down easy, so how did they manage to beat her unconscious?  

Butterfly deployed!  Dean springs free and runs the car right into the convenient barricades.  And no one notices.  

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 Baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby-rewatch-notes)

 


	11. November

[11/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132321265374/rewatch-notes-part-6)  **rewatch notes, part 6**

Heaps of broken glass à la Hael.

Dean considers and rejects the machete - only a stopgap, with this monster - and rifles the Hello Kitty bag in hopes of finding something actually useful.

Through the front window - past the broken mirror - DD gets up and pulls a shard of broken glass from his face.  More construction equipment behind him, all unattended.

Sam put a bullet through the back window.  DD went through the front window.  Now DD breaks the driver side windows with Dean, which wakes up Mrs Markham in the front passenger footwell.  Water is coming in from somewhere.  I suspect the water of being symbolically important.  Mrs Markham goes for Dean’s neck.   _fight scene fight scene fight scene_   Dean empties the change purse into DD’s mouth, then re-decapitates him with the car door for good measure.  Dean gets the severed head out of his car.

Dean apologizes to Baby.

Mrs Markham wakes up cured, as promised.

Poor Baby has trouble starting - but she manages.  Dean thanks her and slaps a kiss on her dash.  He winces from the bite mark.

Check out that wrecked rear-view mirror.  I suspect that of being symbolically important, too.

Dean tweaks the mirror back in to line.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 Baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby-rewatch-notes) [#it feels like driving on broken glass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-feels-like-driving-on-broken-glass)

* * *

 

[11/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132322864544/rewatch-notes-part-7)  **rewatch notes, part 7**

Baby does not sound good, here.  We roll past yet more construction equipment to find everyone’s babies alive and upright.  Embracing ensues.

Dean wants to go home, Sam already is home - I think I’m going to write about that separately.  

Dean vows to end the Darkness now.  [ _dixitque Deus fiat lux et facta est lux_ ]  Sam, who’s moving rather creakily, suggests starting tomorrow.  Yeah, no.  That sounds very noble and determined, guys, but Baby’s headlights are smashed in, as are her front, rear, and driver’s side windows, and her whole front end.  I lack mechanical knowledge, so I don’t know what’s broken in her engine, but I do know enough not to drive far when the car is making scary noises.  Not to mention,  **she’s missing a windshield**.  They can’t drive her like that, not all the way back to Lebanon.  The rest of our heroes’ day is going to involve holing up at the motel and washing off the worst of the blood while phoning around to a) find someone with a flatbed to haul her back to Kansas and b) start the hunt for replacement glass.  They can end the Darkness next week. 

Dean prays for Baby to start, and his prayer is answered.

I guess that’s the full set, now?  11x01, Castiel called on his brothers to come get him, and they did.  Crowley called on his minions to come get him, and they did.  11x02, Sam called on God for a sign, some hope, and he got them.  11x04, Dean called on his car to start, and she did.  

..

Lotta people drove the car this week - a vision, a valet, couple of monsters - and none of them were Sam.  When was the last time Sam drove Baby?  At some point, Sam needs to start driving her again.  Dean needs to cede some part of that control, and Sam needs to start doing some part of that labor.  

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x04 Baby rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby-rewatch-notes) [#Gn 1:3](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Gn-1%3A3) [#sweet songs never last too long on broken radios](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sweet-songs-never-last-too-long-on-broken-radios) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes)

* * *

 

[11/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132348596289/you-know-what-she-said)  **“You know what she said?”**

Nope, because Dean made a joke and Sam never finished what he was going to say.  It’s implied that Dean guessed right… but maybe he didn’t.  Maybe she said something like, “Dude, this isn’t even your own car.”  Or, “Honey, my husband would not like that.”

Similarly, Dean told a very specific and recurring Dad-dream, while all Sam said was he dreamed about normal life with Mom.  And I’m curious as hell - which Mom is it he dreams of?  Could be the pregnant young wife, the Mommy from Dean’s heaven, the burning ghost, Eve’s impersonation, or Sam’s projection of what she would have been like when he was eight and needed help with his arithmetic.  And which ‘normal’?  Normal for Sam could be them hanging out in the kitchen of the house in Lawrence, or it could be them detailing Baby in a motel parking lot.  

Someone should push Sam for more detail on this kind of stuff, and actually stay for an answer.  Dean’s not going to do it; he doesn’t know how.  Maybe Castiel or Jody?  Or a new character.  Whoever.  Sam really does need someone he can talk to, though.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#a dream is a wish the heart makes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-dream-is-a-wish-the-heart-makes)

* * *

 

[11/1/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132362224429/roadhouse-ii-the-mistakening)  **Roadhouse II: the Mistakening**

That conversation outside Jimmy’s Roadhouse - seems like a lot of people parsed it very differently than I did.  (transcript below the cut.)

The way I read Dean in that scene, his logic goes thus: he had a good time in that bar once (with Sam and their hunter buddy Heather),  **therefore** all time in that bar will be good,  **and** time heals all wounds,  **therefore**  we who are weary (Sam) and wounded (Dean) should go into the bar, and be healed of our hurts.

I don’t think Dean’s being so set on this bar is about anyone getting laid, at least, not as the main goal.  It’s about revisiting a time Dean remembers enjoying, because the way to feel good in the now is to relive the better parts of the past.  (That’s how Heaven does it, after all.)  And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this happy place has the same name as one of their lost family homeplaces, with ‘Jimmy’ replacing ‘Harvelle.’  Also not a coincidence that the part of the sign visible through the windshield of the parked car just says “ROADHOUSE” without specifying whose.

Dean’s trying to apply the balms of yesteryear to the hurts of the present.  But Heather’s in Texas and Sam’s not willing to humor him tonight.  The outcome?  “Mistakes were made.”

..

And, as an additional aside, why is Sam so very tired?  He’s already exhausted here, and the next evening he’s so wiped out Dean makes him take a nap.  I know where Dean got the bruises, but if there’s a textual reason for Sam’s persistent weariness I missed it.

****[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#you can't go home again](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you-can%27t-go-home-again) [#Roadhouses as Heaven-on-Earth](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Roadhouses-as-Heaven-on-Earth)

* * *

 

[11/3/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132463123202/iwatchthepie-my-kids-i-never-thought-id)

If we take Lily Markham as a mirror of John, that has some interesting implications.  

Lily Markham became a monster.  Her children became principally valuable to her as something she could contribute to the cause, so she made them monsters too.  In the aftermath of a car crash, she suddenly stops being a monster and suddenly starts giving a damn about her kids’ welfare again, at which point she leaves the story.  Sounds like John.

[[dustydreamsanddirtyscars ](http://dustydreamsanddirtyscars.tumblr.com/post/132326870016/theres-nothing-any-hunters-or-humans-can-do-about)highlighted Deputy Donelly’s line, “there’s nothing any hunters or humans can do about it.”  Which I take to mean, to him humans are like sheep, while hunters are more like llamas or something.  They’re both fluffy and herbivorous, but sheep are easy prey and llamas will kick the shit out of any predator who tries it.  Humans and hunters have many similarities, but the smart predator/monster will recognize them as different breeds.  And to sheep, I imagine llamas can look pretty monstrous.]

For Lily, step one was being inducted into the ranks of monsterhood.  Then she didn’t get enough training.  Which meant that when her husband had to go, she made an attention-getting mess of it.  

.

If we superimpose Lily’s story on John, that would suggest John  threw in with the hunter(?) cause  _before_ Mary died.  Mary’s death would have been a side effect of his joining up, and the showy dramatics were due to his insufficient training.  But even after all that, there would have been a “Maker” telling John that he’d been chosen for his strength and he was still vital to the cause.

If the Maker in this scenario was the Archangel Michael, and he started poking at John sometime in the early 80s, courting John the way Castiel courted Jimmy Novak, that could explain what John and Mary were fighting about so much.  It could explain a lot.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent) [#in this analogy hunters are guard llamas](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-this-analogy-hunters-are-guard-llamas) [#Garth is a very plausible guard llama](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Garth-is-a-very-plausible-guard-llama)

* * *

 

[11/5/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132592550144/strong-applause-for-the-choice-to-spend-a-line)

Strong applause for the choice to spend a line saying, “Castiel lives here in the bunker, but will not appear in this episode.”  Because, seriously: way overdue.  Keeping my fingers crossed for a case where he can’t come along because he’s nurturing a hive of bees.  Followed, ten eps later, by a case that follows them home to the bunker and is resolved by the application of said bees.  

.

That was a nice house… but mostly a reminder to me that we live in an AU to the SPNverse, because our ‘verse’s Borden House isn’t near as big or fancy.  And if our ‘verse’s Lizzie or Emma Borden had descendants, they sure hushed it up well.

Kinda disappointed the innkeeper was a red herring.  Last week’s careful dropping of clues and this week’s chintz had me expecting another cozy-style mystery.  I suppose it’s better storytelling overall to change it up this week to the hard-boiled style solution (where the villain has to spell it all out because the detective never knew most of the relevant facts).   I like cozies better, is all.

.

Len there was trying the method Frank Devereaux prescribed for Dean way back in 7x11, and it wasn’t working all that well.  Did it ever work for Dean?  Or Frank, for that matter?

BUT ALSO - Len kept saying he was 

> going through the motions  
> Walking through the part  
> Nothing seems to penetrate [his] heart

When it seems likely he’s going to hurt more people, Len decides to follow the path of Faith and get himself locked up.  Castiel tried something similar in 11x01.  It worked better for Faith.

.

Dean was looking shifty as hell in the closing conversation, like he’s the one keeping secrets.  And then he looked right at where Amara IV was standing as he was pulling out. 

[#spn 11x05 Thin Lizzie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x05-Thin-Lizzie) [#spn 7x11 Adventures in Babysitting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x11-Adventures-in-Babysitting) [#BtVS 6x07 Once More With Feeling](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/BtVS-6x07-Once-More-With-Feeling) [#Angel 1x19 Sanctuary](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Angel-1x19-Sanctuary) [#spn 11x01 Out of the Darkness Into the Fire](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x01-Out-of-the-Darkness-Into-the-Fire) [#Dean is a large muscular hypocrite](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-is-a-large-muscular-hypocrite)

* * *

 

[11/7/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132750947554/am-i-the-only-one-who-thought-by-whiny-winged)

Am I the only one who thought by “whiny winged suck-up” she meant Castiel?  I think young Amara was ticked at being compared to/mistaken for her rival for Dean’s affections.  (which, ew.)  She’s been hanging off Dean’s arm for a year and a half, after all, and seems to have gotten to know him pretty well.  Seems likely she’d have gotten an earful of Dean obsessing about his angel.

[#spn 11x05 Thin Lizzie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x05-Thin-Lizzie) [#whiny winged suck-up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/whiny-winged-suck-up)

 

[11/8/19](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132802865959/f-ckyeahfutbol-welkinalauda-am-i-the-only)

It’s not so much about the objective applicability of the insults, but about the mind-set of the person doing the insulting.  And right now, Amara seems pretty focused on Dean.  In the whirlwind, she was talking up how she and Dean will always be bound together.  The last episode ended with her happily anticipating their reunion.  As far as she’s concerned, he’s her… whatever they end up calling it.  But the point is, she thinks of him as  _hers_.  

Dean, though, while he’s certainly thinking about Amara, he’s got her in the “problem to be solved” category.  It’s someone else Dean is welcoming into his home and tenderly wrapping in blankets.  Dean is focused on Castiel the way Amara is focused on Dean, and I think she’s jealous.

* * *

 

[11/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132943723854/remember-how-someone-took-a-careful-look-at-that)

Remember how someone took a careful look at that promo shot of the Darkness roiling and found a winged dark figure flying out of the cloud and away?  I did not bookmark that post, and now that there’s minor characters talking about a dark thing with wings unfurling inside, I regret it.

[#spn season 11 promo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-promo) [#darkness and regret](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/darkness-and-regret)

* * *

 

[11/10/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/132945683359/things-from-baby-that-gotta-be-symbolical-somehow)  **Things from _Baby_ that gotta be symbolical somehow, because they make no practical sense:**

\- BLANKETS.  Castiel is back at the bunker wrapped in blankets: yes, good.  Sam and Dean overnighted in the car in autumn somewhere in the Rockies without apparent blankets: that’s going to get cold, boys.  We know they have at least one, ‘cause Sam put it down for Piper.  They just didn’t use it to sleep under, in autumn, in the Rockies.  

\- DEAN DOES ALL THE DRIVING.  Sam does no visible driving in  _Baby_ , which is consistent with what they’ve shown us for years now.  Which is odd, in a way, because Baby was all about showing that the moments that make it into the usual run of the show are not the entirety of the boys’ relationship.  So we got to see them laugh and sing together and generally act like they like each other, which was great.  But Sam still isn’t back to actually driving the car he grew up in and calls home.

\- SAM IS VERY TIRED.  Sam said how exhausted he was, and on a different day, Dean says how exhausted Sam is and makes him take a nap.  Then having taken the nap, Sam wakes, talks to Dean for a few minutes, and is still tired enough to go right back to sleep.  What’s he so weary from?  Riding shotgun is usually not, in itself, particularly strenuous.  It’s certainly not more tiring than driving the car.  So…?

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#still bugging me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-bugging-me)

* * *

 

[11/12/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133121492219/the-girls-all-dolled-up-check-her-hair-and)

The girl’s all dolled up - check her hair and make-up, she’s performing adult femininity like a pro - purring about how  _fascinating_ she finds our hero and gently stroking his cheek…

…but that’s not sexualized at all, because the male actor was told to act scared instead of turned on.  

Yeah, no.

This is the fun-fun-fun trope of “the little minx was begging for it.”  The poor grown man caught in her clutches was helpless.  HELPLESS, I tell you, in the face of her overwhelming female-girly power.  Not responsible for his actions.  Whatever he does, whatever he does  _to her_ , will be all her fault because she was so very seductive at him.  

[#spn 11x06 Our Little World](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x06-Our-Little-World) [#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda) [#asking for it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/asking-for-it) [#rule one of patriarchy: women are to blame for what men do to them](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/rule-one-of-patriarchy%3A-women-are-to-blame-for-what-men-do-to-them) [#Saying the girl character isn't sexualized](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Saying-the-girl-character-isn%27t-sexualized) [#that the words they put in the girl actress's mouth](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-the-words-they-put-in-the-girl-actress%27s-mouth) [#and the way they made her up and asked her to act](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-the-way-they-made-her-up-and-asked-her-to-act) [#don't count at all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-count-at-all) [#because the man actor was told not to sport an obvious boner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-the-man-actor-was-told-not-to-sport-an-obvious-boner) [#is asserting that agency is a male perogative](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-asserting-that-agency-is-a-male-perogative) [#still sexist](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-sexist) [#still rape culture bullshit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-rape-culture-bullshit)

* * *

 

[11/13/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133175331994/peter-pantomime-was-talking-about-fitting-the)

[@peter-pantomime](http://tmblr.co/mllyUilHivivd1XbLSSVKZg) [was talking about](http://peter-pantomime.tumblr.com/post/133099368191/grand-narratives) fitting the God/Amara siblinghood into the pattern of Michael/Lucifer, Cain/Abel, and Dean/Sam.

To ride that off on [my own hobby horse](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119795174929/binary-ternary), SPN’s got a tendency to reduce everything to a binary, while at the same time letting us know that those dichotomies they’re pushing are false.  None of the two-man sibsets above is complete: they all have more brothers and sisters.  Michael and Lucifer had Gabriel, Raphael, and the whole of the Heavenly Host.  Cain and Abel had Seth, plus the unnamed younger siblings mentioned in Gn 5:4.  Dean and Sam had Adam, and there’s the possibility of John Winchester having sown more wild oats off-screen.  (And if we take them at their word about family not ending with blood, Charlie was their sister. [ _eta: and Jo, too._ ])  We can also parallel the afterlives - Heaven and Hell, plus Purgatory, the Veil, and now “the Empty,” and those are just the ones we know about.

So if God and Amara fit that pattern, she will not turn out to be his only kin.

[#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics) [#no reason to stop at two](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-reason-to-stop-at-two) [#third alternatives](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/third-alternatives) [#edited to add Jo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/edited-to-add-Jo)

* * *

 

[11/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133192990935/if-everyone-elses-analyses-of-the-lyrics-havent)

If everyone else’s analyses of the lyrics haven’t persuaded you that this song is catchy as hell but skeevy as fuck, mine’s not going to change your mind.  

It’s just, if they didn’t want us to treat the Amara/Dean encounter as sexualized, they could have picked another song.  (see below)

[#music q](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/music-q) [#Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Girl-You%27ll-Be-a-Woman-Soon) [#Neil Diamond](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Neil-Diamond) [#spn 11x06 Our Little World](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x06-Our-Little-World)

* * *

 

[11/14/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133231533089/larinah-looking-outside-of-our-little-world)

If I’m squinting at the map right, the Court of Hell was at the end of Paradise Lane, in Swansea, Mass.

[#spn 11x06 Our Little World](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x06-Our-Little-World) [#talking maps](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/talking-maps)

* * *

 

[11/15/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133283365444/random-thought-on-the-wallpaper)  **Random Thought on the Wallpaper**

In  _Changing Channels_ , the “motel room” done up in that wallpaper was a set.  The boys played most of that scene facing out to an unseen “audience” that kept making laugh-track noises.

In  _Our Little World_ , half of the motel room is done up in that wallpaper, and the other half of the room is paneled in dark wood.  When they’re interrogating the demon, the boys are playing the scene in front of the wallpapered side, to a guy who’s seated, facing them, in the darker side of the room.

Demon = laugh-track audience people?

[#spn 5x08 Changing Channels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x08-Changing-Channels) [#spn 11x06 Our Little World](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x06-Our-Little-World)

* * *

 

[11/18/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133515365799/another-quartet)  **Another quartet**

Rabbit, jester, clown, deer.

I figure deer -> impala -> Baby -> Dean, and that works pretty well with the bereaved boy being used to avenge his father (figure).

The jester was specified as  **Court** Jester, so that was probably meant for Crowley.

I think the clown is supposed to be Sam, which leaves the rabbit for Castiel.  Though I suppose it could be the other way around?  I’m guessing the part where the clown finishes what the jester started is foreshadowing, so we shall see.

[#spn 11x07 Plush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x07-Plush) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes)

* * *

 

[11/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133649270648/coulrophobia) 

**Coulrophobia**

> In the modern circus clown tradition, there seems to be an unmistakable tint of class humor.  The recreating public would watch hobo clowns, with their shabby, ill-fitting clothes, their comically unshaven faces and alcoholic red noses, as they underwent a series of misfortunes in all their endeavors.  A certain amount of guilt about the condition of the underprivileged must have been assuaged by seeing how these disadvantages tramps contributed to their own suffering by their bumbling, and yet these forlorn men always seemed basically happy with this state of affairs. 
> 
> – “[Coulrophobia and the Trickster](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trinity.edu%2Forg%2Ftricksters%2FTrixWay%2Fcurrent%2FVol%25203%2FVol3_1%2FDurwin.htm&t=OTk5NjBkMTJhMzZhZWU3NTc5ZmNjNTRhYzVmN2NhN2Q0NDlkZDI2MCxrY0lYZGVFQg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F133649270648%2Fcoulrophobia&m=1),” Joseph Durwin 2004

Back when they first told us Sam was afraid of clowns, I think it was meant to be the converse of Dean’s fear of flying.  Working-class hero Dean was afraid of elevated society and depending on technology he doesn’t personally control.  Class-climbing Sam was afraid of allegedly lovable vagrant drunks.

Their fears aren’t phobias.  Phobias are irrational.  The Winchesters are perfectly rational in their beliefs that planes crash and clowns kill.  Not to mention, TV phobias evaporate after one good confrontation with the fear-object, never to be mentioned again.  

I think Dean is still afraid of flying?  No one’s tried to get him on a plane in years, so I don’t rightly know.  But he is still a control freak and he does still hate high society, so…

Sam for sure is still deathly afraid of clowns, because TPTB keep confronting him with menacing clowns every four or five years, and showing us just how scared he is.  Sam beats the clowns every time, but he’s still scared.  I think TPTB may be trying to tell us that he’s still got rational reason to fear that a self-defeating alcoholic will try to kill him, again.

[#spn 1x04 Phantom Traveler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-1x04-Phantom-Traveler) [#spn 2x02 Everbody Loves a Clown](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x02-Everbody-Loves-a-Clown) [#spn 7x14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x14%C2%A0Plucky-Pennywhistle%27s-Magical-Menagerie) [#spn 11x07 Plush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x07-Plush) [#there was a Max in Phantom Traveler too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there-was-a-Max-in-Phantom-Traveler-too) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

[f-ckyeahfutbol](http://f-ckyeahfutbol.tumblr.com/post/133651029406)

Well, this hits me in the feels.

Dean has been on a plane three times that we know of, and the during the long trans-Atlantic flights he seemed to be able to manage his fear, “white-knuckling it”. It would be interesting to see him attempt it again.

[welkinalauda](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133668645589/coulrophobia)

Thank you!  i thought there had been more plane time, but it wasn’t coming to me last night.  And now that you said three, it’s 1x04, 5x01, and 6x04, yes?  

Now that I think about it, the clowns that attack Sam have been of varying origin: rakshasa, hoodoo, ghost possession.  But when Dean’s on a plane, it’s always because he’s in conflict with a demon/the devil.  (Which hooks back to Julia M. Wright’s  theory that demons - warped, twisted souls who exploit ordinary people - are meant to represent the business class.)  So maybe we haven’t seen Dean being afraid of planes lately because Dean sold out.  He became one of Them, and in doing so, he got more comfortable in suits and lost the stomach-churning fear

 [#spn 1x04 Phantom Traveler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-1x04-Phantom-Traveler)[#spn 2x02 Everbody Loves a Clown](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x02-Everbody-Loves-a-Clown)[#spn 5x01 Sympathy for the Devil](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x01-Sympathy-for-the-Devil)[#spn 6x04 Weekend at Bobby's](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x04-Weekend-at-Bobby%27s)[#spn 7x14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x14%C2%A0Plucky-Pennywhistle%27s-Magical-Menagerie)[#spn 11x07 Plush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x07-Plush)[#Dean's fear of flying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean%27s-fear-of-flying)[#Sam's fear of clowns](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam%27s-fear-of-clowns)

[f-ckyeahfutbol](http://f-ckyeahfutbol.tumblr.com/post/133671450176)

Oh, man, that demons as the business class idea sounds fascinating! Do you know where I could read more about it?

What makes Sam’s fear really interesting is that Dean has in many places been associated with the jester or the Scaramouche (or the figure of the Scaramouche keeps following him) – and I’ve talked before about how Sam constructed Hallucifer around the mannerisms and habitus of his older brother. What is it that Sam is really afraid of?

[welkinalauda](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133677632794/coulrophobia)

Wright’s theory was in an article from 2006 called “[Latchkey Hero: Masculinity, Class and the Gothic in Eric Kripke’s Supernatural](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.questia.com%2Flibrary%2Fjournal%2F1G1-179660948%2Flatchkey-hero-masculinity-class-and-the-gothic-in&t=NDdlNWUxMWY4ZTkzMmJkNGViNmVlMGZlYzZkMzFkY2YxZDRmYzA3NyxrY0lYZGVFQg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F133677632794%2Fcoulrophobia&m=1).”  It used to be available free, but now there is paywall and I don’t know how to get around it.  The article is short, covers only the first two seasons, and cites similar class tropes in Kripke’s  _Boogeyman_ (2005) to suggest that the class thing really is what Kripke was getting at with the early seasons of  _Supernatural_.  (Or, that’s how I remember it, anyway.  It’s been a while since I read it.)

Could you talk more about / link me to talk about Dean and the Scaramouche?  I don’t think I’e seen that angle before.

[#spn class meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-class-meta) [#f-ckyeahfutbol](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/f-ckyeahfutbol)

* * *

 

[11/21/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133705418544/can-angels-heal-cars)  **Can angels heal cars?**

Be a lot faster and cheaper than trying to find replacement glass and a new front end for a ‘67 Chevy.

[#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby)

* * *

 

[11/27/15](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134080639329/sandraugiga-f-ckyeahfutbol-sandraugiga) [did Jody & Bobby have sex?]

Yeah, going to side with Sandra here - the fact that she put on a change of clothes the next day tells us nothing except that she packed a change of clothes before she drove to Rufus’s cabin.  Similarly, had she worn the same clothes the next day, it would not suggest anything to me but that she hadn’t packed a change of clothes.  Bringing/not bringing a change of clothes may be indicative of Jody’s intentions (bringing clothes because she’s planning to stay over), but it doesn’t tell us how events actually unfolded.

I think it’s entirely plausible that Bobby & Jody banged like a screen door in a hurricane.  I just don’t think her clothes are evidence either way.

(I don’t want Bobby and Jody to have gotten together, myself, because I had this lovely fantasy that Marcy Ward would change her mind and come back with an apple crumb cake.  We would find out about this when the boys have some LEO call their AD and Marcy answers the phone as their AD’s assistant.  Everyone gets nice baked goods, and Jody stays something other than a love interest.)

[#spn 7x06 Slash Fiction](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x06-Slash-Fiction) [#spn 6x04 Weekend at Bobby's](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x04-Weekend-at-Bobby%27s)

 

 


	12. December

[12/3/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134476072114/another-quartet)  **Another quartet**

Manicorn, mermaid, air guitarist, Mork.

 

Have they always done things in fours, and I’m just noticing it now, or is this new with season 11?

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes)

* * *

 

[12/3/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134477235614/running-away-with-me) Running Away With Me

This got long.  And critical.

*****

Lots of off-kilter stuff in this episode.  Some of it's clearly intentional, foreshadowing & subtext stuff.  Other parts are Show being problematic at me, and other parts, I don’t know for sure what they meant by it, but they didn’t work for me.

*****

It started in the THEN - the clips were all about supernatural creatures that have been greeting-card cutesified in mass culture but turn out to be real and potentially dangerous.  Except the balded doll head.  That time the ‘monster’ was a horrifically abused human child.  

No, wait - it starts in the episode title: “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” by the Temptations.

and, btw:  **Sully** (verb) damage the purity or integrity of; defile. synonyms: taint, defile, soil, tarnish, stain, blemish, pollute, spoil, mar  

I liked how those work together to tell us that the antagonist is a human person, and Sully - for all that he looks like a young John Goodman masquerading as a young Robin Williams - is a foul tempter.

The Xana (sp?) as a cohort may be ‘good,’ in the sense that they generally try to be helpful, but Sully in particular is not good.  At best he is bad at helping, and at worst he’s hurting children for fun.  

Sparkle did tea parties, Nicky swam, Weems does air guitar.  Sully’s gig is convincing kids to run.  He did his very best to talk a nine-year-old Sam into running from a (relatively) safe motel room to… what?  there was no destination specified.  Sully talked about school and friends, but the path he was tempting Sam to follow leads most likely to foster care, and at worst to some scary shit I don’t want to think about.  In the US, foster care generally means being moved from foster home to foster home at unpredictable intervals and a one in three chance of being molested by a caregiver.  Other than doing all his moving within a single jurisdiction, there really isn’t an up side for Sam to trading in Dean for a case worker.

And then we find out that Sully enticed a little girl into running into the path of an oncoming car.

Oops.

And golly, he just felt  _so bad_ about Audrey that he had to abandon little Reese to deal all by her lonesome with the mind-fuck of seeing her invisible best friend kill her twin sister.  I have a nasty suspicion that Sully would have left Sam to deal with foster care (or worse) on his own, too.  Poor, delicate Sully with his poor, delicate feelings.  What a hysterical vindictive bitch Reese is, to imagine the monster who killed her sister is really a monster and try to hold a good guy like Sully to some kind of account. 

*****

There’s some stuff here I just don’t get, like, how did Reese find Sully’s ‘posse’ to start killing them?  I can make something up about the Xana having geographical regions or something, but I wish they’d filled that in themselves.  

And, why is Sam waking up to an alarm?  They don’t have a case to run off to, so sleep in, dude.

*****

I hate when they write speeches so weak and full of holes that even Jensen Ackles can’t sell it.  That speech to Reese sounded to me very much like the speech to Cole: Abandon your vengeance quest, just as you are about to achieve your goal, because Reasons that aren’t actually persuasive.  And as with Cole, author fiat persuades Reese to abandon her quest, pass her weapon to Dean, and leave. 

I wonder, if a stranger had gotten in Dean’s face at the Devil’s Gate and delivered the same speech, would Dean have shot that stranger before or after Azazel?  He sure as shit wouldn’t have handed the stranger the Colt and left.

*****

Sully reminds me of Amy Pond.  As in, it doesn’t matter that Amy killed four people (that we know of), she’s a ‘good’ monster who deserves to live because she was nice to Sam when he was a lonely kid.  Sully has only killed one child (that we know of), but he’s also a ‘good’ monster who deserves to live because he was nice to Sam.  But this time around, Dean’s agrees that the monster who likes Sam should live.  Funny how when it was a female creature who killed four men, Dean marched off and executed her like the enemy combatant she was, but when it’s a male creature who killed a girl, Dean’s willing to let it go. 

*****

I think this episode was meant to tell us that the voices Sam is listening to and the people Sam is admiring are not actually good to listen to or admire.  Sully isn’t a hero, he’s a candy-coated temptation to run in the wrong direction.  The voice that Sam flatters himself is God is really coming from the pit.  And Dean, for all his reluctance, is going to get taken in along with Sam this time.

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#spn 4x11 Family Remains](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x11-Family-Remains) [#The Name Game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Name-Game) [#spn 10x07 Girls Girls Girls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x07-Girls-Girls-Girls) [#spn 2x22 All Hell Breaks Loose Part II](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x22-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose-Part-II) [#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door) [#there is a Sparkle Motion joke in here somewhere but so far I haven't found it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there-is-a-Sparkle-Motion-joke-in-here-somewhere-but-so-far-I-haven%27t-found-it)

* * *

 

[12/3/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134493450054/silly-thought-to-sully-means-to-taint-in)

Sully was the name of John Goodman’s character in  _Monsters, Inc_.

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#the actor kind of looked like a young John Goodman](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-actor-kind-of-looked-like-a-young-John-Goodman) [#and they're both imaginary](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-they%27re-both-imaginary) [#but other than that the two Sullys are not really similar](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-other-than-that-the-two-Sullys-are-not-really-similar)

* * *

 

[12/6/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134701752179/just-my-imagination-re-watch-notes-1)  **Just My Imagination re-watch notes 1**

Sully occupies the same visual space as that old-fashioned phone. 

Phone calls from the long-lost are not usually a good thing in spn.  

.

Just as Sully is saying, “We help kids.  We’re the good guys” buckleming’s names appear on screen.  Sarcasm, propaganda, subtext, coincidence?

.

Between  _Baby_  and this ep, they are putting  **a lot** of screen time this season into framing Sam as a child in his brother’s house.  Like Sam stomping off to the library under his brother’s orders.

Sam’s childhood motel room: bringing new meaning to “raised in a barn.”

“Hey, c’mon -  **we can finally make those bottle rockets!** ” - an example of Sully’s beneficent guidance.

.

Kinda wish they’d gone for MacColl instead of Strummer as a pseudonym, for a clear “Fairytale of New York” reference.  (I do like the idea of the Pogues as trauma counselors, though.)

It’s not the fact of the portmanteau thing, it’s the timing.  You don’t have to announce your little mash-up ideas the moment they occur, Dean.  Or at all, really…

Feels like Sparkle’s broken horn should mean something, but I don’t know what.

** Elephant on the floor, all covered with blood… so  **the elephant in the room is the source of the blood** on the mother’s hands and face.

Please tell me the boys came back later and dealt with Sparkle’s body.  And that Sully there had a way to make Maddie un-see the Zanna.  Because if not, poor Maddie.

.

Imaginary friends are white people?  Hm.

Sparkle spent his down time reading.  Nicky spends her down time pageant-smiling at the back yard.  I bet she laughs alone with salad, too.

** Duck in the pool, all covered with blood… and kinda reminiscent of that bloodied weight from  _Plush_.

Sully starts hyperventilating and Dean tries to be nice about it, but “No! No, I gotta stay strong for Sam.”  If I hadn’t already thought this guy was evil, that would have done it.  How manipulative can you get?   **and it worked on Dean**.  jfc.

…and the fact that they’re having the disposal conversation over the corpse of the mermaid suggests that they did indeed leave Sparkle where he fell, and Maddie’s on her own - but Zoe’s delicate sensibilities should be protected. O-Kay.

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#spn 3x14 Long-Distance Call](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x14-Long-Distance-Call) [#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x07 Plush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x07-Plush) [#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination-rewatch-notes)

* * *

 

[12/6/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134702921764/just-my-imagination-re-watch-notes-2)  **Just My Imagination re-watch notes 2**

Sam says, “I broke my arm,” and Sully laughs.

.

The child actor is good  **as an actor** , but I’m not feeling him  **as Sam** , ykwim?  It’s like whatever magic the casting dept was working has finally run out.

Young Sam brings up maybe getting away from hunting, and Sully suggests school and friends… which is by itself are reasonable sorts of things to advocate.  But Sully follows with the threat of his own absence, and other manipulative crap - and gets  _so fucking excited_  that Sam agrees to run off.  Like Sam homeless and alone is what Sully wants.

.

Little Fletcher’s T-shirt has a T-Rex wearing headphones.  Bang that gong, kiddo.  (Or don’t, maybe, what with the apparent substance abuse problems in the family.)

…and Weems gets stabbed through the sheet.  Despite his own foreshadowy T-shirt, with “my time is gonna come” and a Grateful Dead-style skeleton, Weems only gets stabbed once (not like Nicky), and his assailant flees without making sure he’s dead (not like Sparkle), so Weem does not die.

** Sheet on the line, spattered with blood…  SO MANY WAYS TO GO from that - marriage by proxy, audience lines from Rocky Horror, a red stripe for the blue stars making the US flag, female adolescence, callback to 6x01 & various horror movies.  My brain balks at the sheer multitude of symbolic possibilities.

.

Look at how upset the dudes are over Nicky (and Sparkle).

**OMG they fridged a mermaid.** _You bastards!_

Weems rises up. wounded, with blood on his hands, to show Dean up.   Sam and Dean are impressed, like Dean was with weight-lifter boy in the last ep.   Weems may be no Clapton, but is he a Mark Bolan?  good solo, anyway. 

Weems knows who Sam is.  Weems knows that Sam “broke Sully’s heart.”  By… going to join his family over Sully’s objections.  And when Sully pushed it - c’mon, Sam, wouldn’t you rather be homeless on the street than going to see your family? - Sam told him to fuck off.  I join nine-year-old Sam in wanting Sully to fuck off, here. 

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#spn 6x01 Exile on Main Street](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x01-Exile-on-Main-Street) [#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination-rewatch-notes)

* * *

 

[12/6/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134704571429/just-my-imagination-re-watch-notes-3)  **Just My Imagination re-watch notes 3**

Sully patches Weems up, which makes me wonder if Sully was the one to teach Sam how to fix a stab wound in the first place.

Sam’s framed as a child some more, sitting in a wrong-sized chair with Sully’s head a good foot above Sam’s, with Sam apologizing for stuff he wasn’t even wrong about, looking for advice and absolution.

Sully knows about the Darkness.  How does Sully know that?

**Sully brings up running away** , again.  Sam says no.

.

Reese got the drop on Dean because… he just wasn’t paying much attention, I guess?  They’re spending a fair amount of screen time this season framing Dean as a fuckup/pushover, and I like it even less than them framing Sam as a child.

.

Sully reminds me here of some people I’d rather I’d never known.  “Oh, let me dramatically take tearful responsibility!  I am so, so very, very sorry!  [that’s your cue to absolve me.]  Still not forgiving me after all I’ve done for you?  I shall increase my pathos, you ingrate!  My penitence will keep redoubling until you finally take your damn cue and comfort me like you’re supposed to!  I   AM   SO   SORRY!”

Fuck off, Sully.

.

“Zanna are good!”  Maybe as a general rule.  But, as a general rule, vampires suck human blood.  Remember Lenore?   **Exceptions exist** , Sam.  Consider that possibility and the implications thereof.  

Reese figured out that Sully was a monster and started hunting his kind.  This makes sense.

“I kind of liked watching you suffer.”  This does not make sense.  How was she seeing him suffer?  (Hell, how did she find this particular posse of Zanna to exterminate in the first place?)  Did she spend the entire episode lurking unnoticed by our two professional hunter-dudes?  She’s just not that ninja.  This is framing Our Heroes as incompetent pushovers again, and, wtf?  

\- and we’re back to Sully’s manpain.  DUDE.  Your job is emotional labor.  This “oh, no, I panicked and ran!” bit is meant to appeal to a masculine stereotype of presumptive incompetence at, and presumptive shirking of, emotional labor.  Which means  _at best_  Sully sucks at his job.  At worst, he is hurting children for fun and manipulating everyone in sight into prioritizing poor sad Sully’s feelings about it - This White Guy Has Suffered Enough! - over any kind of justice for the people he’s harmed.

“I’m just still so mad!”  Not unlike Sam at that age, enraged all the time.  But Reese still doesn’t strike.  Instead of killing Sully she’s monologuing.

Then we get Dean’s speech, in which he explains that Trust me! Revenge won’t help, the creature who killed your sister really isn’t thatbad, and also, I’m grateful to the creature who killed your sister for helping my brother, so you should be grateful, too, like,  _way_ more grateful about my brother than you are mad about your dead sister.  

Imagine the same speech, delivered by some stranger who’d been travelling with Jake Talley, to Dean at the Devil’s Gate just as he got Azazel in the Colt’s sights.  Imagine that stranger telling Dean, Trust him! revenge won’t help! And besides, Azazel’s really a teddy bear who helped out the stranger’s cousin, so Dean needs to let it all be bygones.  Predicted result: no hugging; Dean puts a bullet in the stranger  _and_  Azazel.  

But, since the writer has an agenda here, Reese swallows the crap Dean’s flinging and embraces her sister’s killer.  Dean gets a new knife for his collection.

.

Reese drives off in her Ava-mobile.  More manipulative crap from Sully, which Sam repays by saying that Sully is the wind beneath Sam’s wings.  

.

At the end, there, Sam’s doing what Sully tried to teach him - picking a bad path and calling it the only alternative to following his family’s wishes.  Which it’s not.  Come on, guys,  **consider** taking a right or a left or even just turning that car around, please?

(Though I would like them to finally get Adam out of the cage.  Finally.)

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#spn 2x03 Bloodlust](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x03-Bloodlust) [#spn 2x22 All Hell Breaks Loose Part II](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x22-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose-Part-II) [#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location) [#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination-rewatch-notes)

* * *

 

[12/8/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134796978849/i-dont-understand-why-people-are-talking-about)

[#spn and rape culture](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-and-rape-culture) [#asking for it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/asking-for-it) [#remember that 11-year-old in TX](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/remember-that-11-year-old-in-TX) [#gang-raped by 18 men](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gang-raped-by-18-men) [#and the New York Times story](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-the-New-York-Times-story) [#was all speculation about how that temptress](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/was-all-speculation-about-how-that-temptress) [#managed to lead so many men astray](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/managed-to-lead-so-many-men-astray) [#she was ELEVEN](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she-was-ELEVEN) [#much like Amara](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/much-like-Amara) [#in spn 11x05-11x06](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-spn-11x05-11x06) [#Showing not-even-teenage girls as powerful schemers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Showing-not-even-teenage-girls-as-powerful-schemers) [#with designs on men's virtue](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-designs-on-men%27s-virtue) [#is an enactment of an existing trope in US culture](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-an-enactment-of-an-existing-trope-in-US-culture) [#that blames 5th-graders for being raped by grown men](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-blames-5th-graders-for-being-raped-by-grown-men) [#This is bad](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/This-is-bad) [#This has real-world effects](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/This-has-real-world-effects) [#And no](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/And-no) [#telling me some more about how the little girl](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/telling-me-some-more-about-how-the-little-girl) [#*really* had all the power](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Areally%2A-had-all-the-power) [#and the grown man was helpless](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-the-grown-man-was-helpless) [#helpless!](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/helpless%21) [#to resist or deny her](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-resist-or-deny-her) [#does not make it better.](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/does-not-make-it-better.) [#It's just repeating again](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/It%27s-just-repeating-again) [#louder](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/louder) [#that the little bitch was asking for it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-the-little-bitch-was-asking-for-it)

* * *

 

[12/9/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134907611709/to-hell-with-a-hand-cart)  **To Hell, with a hand-cart**

Surprisingly little actually happened there.  Or maybe it just seemed like not much happened because it had all been long since been foretold by perspicacious meta writers?  

Anyway - funny how there were women in the crowd listening to the preacher, women in the church, women in the assembly of angels, women in the park - but in all of those gatherings, only men and the Darkness spoke.  (No, wait - Mary in the church said she was, “better, thank you,” when the priest asked how she was.  And… that’s about it for female day-players talking.  I guess “Hot dog?” sounds much better in a male vocal register.)

Funny how the two women with voices were both wearing form-fitting evening gowns, one with a plunging neckline to emphasize her décolletage, one accessorized with manacles.  Female power subordinated and sexualized.

(Men, of course, wear comfortable day clothes, in varying degrees of formality, and shoes they can run in.  None of their skin shows but face, neck, and hands.)

*****

Nice callback, having the angels fall upon Amara in the same spot where Sam and Dean first watched the angels fall.

I don’t there will be many angels left when she’s done with them.

 

*****

They had Sam and Dean carrying the idiot ball, again.  Dean suggested the visions were imaginary; he never even wondered if they were forgeries.  Sam either.  And Sam couldn’t think of a reason - other than re-imprisoning the Darkness - why God would send him to Lucifer.  (Psst, Sam, God set up the Apocalypse in the first place; it would not be surprising if good ol’ God was looking to restart it by letting the archangels out of the cage.)   The betrayal wasn’t really sudden, but it was  _really_ inevitable.  Sam shouldn’t be so surprised.

I would have been happier with this if Sam and Dean had, between them, been at least as smart as the meta crew in speculating possibilities… and then Sam still decided seeing Lucifer was still his best hope for info.  Because it kind of was.  I’d rather have seen Sam count the cost and decide the game was worth the candle than watch him stumble, blinkered, into a trap.   

*****

Sam should be screaming for Michael.  Why isn’t he screaming for Michael?  

[#spn 11x09 O Brother Where Art Thou?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn%C2%A011x09-O-Brother-Where-Art-Thou%3F) [#bechdel fail](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bechdel-fail) [#curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/curse-your-sudden-but-inevitable-betrayal) [#Adam's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Adam%27s-Present-Location) [#Michael's Present Location](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Michael%27s-Present-Location)

* * *

 

[12/10/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134931551531/fandom-wheres-lucifer-spn-writers-did-you-hear)

[#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes) [#Lucifer being back is nice and all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lucifer-being-back-is-nice-and-all) [#but Lucifer was supposed to be part of a boxed set](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-Lucifer-was-supposed-to-be-part-of-a-boxed-set) [#there's supposed to be two archangels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/there%27s-supposed-to-be-two-archangels) [#one human body and one human soul](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/one-human-body-and-one-human-soul) [#in that box](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-that-box) [#don't break up the set](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-break-up-the-set) [#keep most of it back](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/keep-most-of-it-back) [#and expect me  not to notice](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-expect-me-%C2%A0not-to-notice)

* * *

 

[12/11/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/134975944015/festive-trappings-and-a-big-red-nose)  **Festive trappings and a big red nose**

  


When that clown first showed up in the season 11 promo, I thought it seemed meant for a caricature of Rowena, what with the red hair and the heart-shaped face and the menace.  Now that they’ve stuck a round red nose on Rowena, I’m thinking they really did mean it that way.  

The clowns are [Sam’s horror of his origins](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133649270648/coulrophobia) in a neat symbolic format.  It’s partly about class and poverty, but also about the specifics of John Winchester’s lousy parenting - the alcoholism, the constant enforced masquerade.  This season, TPTB have not only resurrected the clown-terror, they’ve spent a lot of time framing Sam as a child in his family’s house.  Examples include (but are not limited to)

  * Calling Baby ‘home’ but  **never** driving her and referring to Baby as his brother’s car
  * standing with the kids as fellow hostages/rescuees in 11x04
  * identifying with young Jordy in 11x05
  * a visit from his imaginary friend and the concomitant flashback-a-palooza in 11x08



Coming in January, we’ll have Rowena wearing a blinking Red Nose of Lousy Parenting and rolling her eyes at her boy Fergus… who is wearing footie pajamas printed with teddy bears building snowmen and acting like a child on Christmas morning.  

Not much of a jump to suggest that they mean us to compare John and Rowena.  And, likely, to construct the analogy 

Sam : John : God :: Crowley : Rowena : Amara.

[#spn season 11 promo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11-promo) [#spn 11x07 Plush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x07-Plush) [#spn 11x10 promo](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x10-promo) [#spn 11x04 Baby](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x04-Baby) [#spn 11x05 Thin Lizzie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x05-Thin-Lizzie) [#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#the big red nose of lousy parenting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-big-red-nose-of-lousy-parenting) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent) [#five pig minimum](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/five-pig-minimum) [#Crowley's lucky she's only LOOKING daggers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Crowley%27s-lucky-she%27s-only-LOOKING-daggers) [#and didn't bring a scalpel with her](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-didn%27t-bring-a-scalpel-with-her)

* * *

 

[12/20/15](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/135595741974/outside-reflections-of-the-inner-self-of-tfw)

I’m still hoping for Charlie as the Jesus part of God.  They had the [Last Supper in 10x18](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/116744388609/2-4-6-8-time-to-transubstantiate), followed by Charlie allowing herself to be [sacrificed by her enemies in 10x21](http://f-ckyeahfutbol.tumblr.com/post/121522788001/welkinalauda-f-ckyeahfutbol-filleretive).  They didn’t resurrect her promptly, but I’m still hoping…

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 10x18 The Book of the Damned](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x18-The-Book-of-the-Damned) [#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#Chuck & Charlie still leaves a space in the trinity](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Chuck-%26-Charlie-still-leaves-a-space-in-the-trinity) [#Hannah's vessel was named Caroline Johnson](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hannah%27s-vessel-was-named-Caroline-Johnson) [#[name derived from Karl] + [son of John]](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%5Bname-derived-from-Karl%5D-%2B-%5Bson-of-John%5D) [#I don't have an actual theory here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-have-an-actual-theory-here) [#but I'm nominating Hannah for Holy Ghost anyway](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-I%27m-nominating-Hannah-for-Holy-Ghost-anyway)

 


End file.
